Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Murfreesboro | Here's news that a bank can use

Anonymous@9:42 a.m. points out that the Gannett paper in Murfreesboro, Tenn., has published a story today with a "written by The Daily News Journal" byline that is nearly word-for-word the contents of a bank's news release on BusinessWire.

"BusinessWire is never credited. There is no 'written by,'" 9:42 says. "There should be a 'copied by.' And yet it counts against your monthly free story limit. This is really cheesy."

(The only difference I can find between the story and the release is that the paper omits some regulatory boilerplate in the release's final paragraph.)

The paper's Monday-Saturday circulation is 10,829, and Sunday is 15,915, according to the March 31 ABC report.

10 comments:

  1. I could probably write this over and over: This paper's newsroom is no doubt terribly understaffed, and probably has been for years.

    But the community deserves better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's part of the new model of "journalism."

    ReplyDelete
  3. This, my friends, is Gannett's true end game. Fire all reporters, whose salaries make them "costs" on the GCI income statement. Then put the "audience" to work by inviting them to submit content to fill the "news" holes. Hopefully advertisers won't notice. Hopefully advertisers will love it. Is there a big ad in the Murfreesboro paper from the bank in question? If not, someone screwed up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Since Business Wire specifically prohibits copying their releases without "prior written permission," I'd be curious to know if that permission was obtained before the article was reproduced verbatim and attributed to a different source. (see http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/copyright/)

    If written permission wasn't sought and granted, there is a legal problem looming.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's just like the Fond du Lac Reporter, where the editor is "excited" about the paywall launch. Most of that paper is press releases, copied verbatim, no matter how long or glowing they are. They routinely run them on the front page, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is happening at our shop and will continue to happen w/ increasing frequency as we cut and cut.
    We simply do not have enough people to do the job right -- and no one seems to care

    ReplyDelete
  7. Has anybody mentioned yet the recent section-front story in Nashville where a local blogger was allowed to write an "article" that was, quite literally, nothing more than an ad for her own new book?

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is SOP at our major metropolitan daily. In fact, copy editors with a question usually don't bother contacting the business "writer." They google some keywords and up pops the press release. Usually it turns out the questionable copy was the one sentence inserted by the paper's staffer. And yes, such stories credit the staffer.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At USA Today, writing that one sentence would make them a founder and an expense sheet would be turned in for it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are lying , 5:15.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.