Some Louisville media outlets get online journalism; the Courier-Journal is not among them

March 22, 2010 - 4:26pm

March 17: Louisville.com's Eve Bohakel Lee's "Are Twig and Leaf's days numbered" breaks the story that "A Cleveland-based property development firm is acting on behalf of CVS to investigate purchasing a strip of property along Bardstown Rd. near Douglass Loop for a new store. The current buildings include the Twig and Leaf, the landmark diner that has stood at the corner of Bardstown and Douglass since 1941."

March 18: On WFPL's The Edit, Gabe Bullard blogs about the development, linking back to Louisville.com's article.

March 18: On Louisville Mojo, Steve Coomes blogs about the development, linking back to Louisville.com's article.

March 21: Four days later, Sheldon S. Shafter writes about the potential closing in "CVS looking at new Bardstown Road store" in the Courier-Journal (that's the newspaper you used to get). He does not mention Louisville.com's story, much less link to it. The story does, however, include links to search engine results for Kroger and virtual meeting software.

And yet blogs are the media outlets that frequently get called out for shady journalism ethics by newspapers, being parasites of their origial reporting. Of course as renowned media critic Nelson Muntz said to a newspaper reporter, "Ha ha! Your medium is dying!"

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Careful when throwing eggs ...

Submitted by dott on March 22, 2010 - 5:26pm.

Did you know that the links featured in the CJ article were text-based advertising (not author-generated links)? See www.netlingo.com/word/double-underlined-links.php for an explanation. Did you know that your lack of knowledge puts you in the same maligned company as the CJ (that is, an online media outlet that doesn't get online journalism)?

Yes, in fact, I did know!

Submitted by Zach Everson on March 22, 2010 - 6:19pm.

Yes, I did know that they were text-based ads--further proof that the C-J has no idea what it's doing online. I can't imagine what value ads for search results for "Kroger" or business-meeting software has to readers of that article, let alone how the C-J expects to make money from it.

Advertising vs editorial

Submitted by dott on March 23, 2010 - 12:14pm.

Then surely you also know that there's a brick wall separating the advertising and editorial departments at the CJ. What I am saying is that it didn't sound like you understood what you were seeing, as if the writer added those links himself. What, exactly, are you expecting from the CJ?

Unmet low expectations

Submitted by Zach Everson on March 23, 2010 - 5:46pm.

I know that there should be a brick wall anyway (I don't know the inner workings of the paper so I can't vouch for it as fact). Using text-based link ads as the C-J does is a bit duplicitous though. As one reader told me, "I selected Kroger thinking it'd take me to a similar article. All I got was some stupid ad for search results." What I saw were links in an article--so clearly someone at the C-J knows how to code a link. Hence there's no excuse for not referring back to the article that broke the story. It's common courtesy and proper journalism ethics to do so. Mojo gets it. WFPL gets it. The C-J does not--this article isn't the first time the C-J based an article on original reporting from this website and didn't give proper credit. Blogs and online media outlets in general take a lot of undeserved grief from the MSM for pilfering their original reporting, not giving credit when its due, and hurting their revenue stream. So it's a bit rich when the C-J, with more money and more reporters, does just that to the little guy like us. As a writer, I should want the C-J to succeed as it gives writers jobs and an audience. But with its failure to comprehend the ethics of online journalism, all I got's schadenfreude. Or, as Nelson put it, "Ha ha! Your medium is dying."

Unmet expectations indeed!

Submitted by dott on March 24, 2010 - 12:23pm.

I have made a huge mistake here. I thought you knew something about journalism AND I thought you knew something about online communications. I was wrong on both counts. What exactly are your qualifications for this job (or are you just a community volunteer)? I also mistakenly believed that most web visitors could easily recognize what is content and what is advertising. Text-based advertising (usually signaled by double-underlined text) has been around for many years. Those links are automatically generated (no one at the CJ added them) but it's okay if you don't realize that. The news that was being reported about CVS and Twig and Leaf was news. You didn't "break" the story. No other media outlet has a responsibility to mention that you wrote about it on Louisville.com. But you're not a journalist so you wouldn't know that. I'm sorry for my mistake.

Sorry

Submitted by Zach Everson on March 24, 2010 - 5:54pm.

Text-based ads have been around for years--lots of bad ideas last for several years (like disco, Hummers, and the Iraq War). They confuse readers, essentially tricking them for a few pennies. Great business model. Readers expect links to take them to other pertinent articles--not an ad for something unrelated (Bing search results for Kroger, really? Who benefits from that?). They'd almost, almost be excusable if they provided value to the C-J's readers. But they don't. You'll notice that most reputable and profitable online media ventures don't use them. Maybe if they did they'd be able to have a poor reputation and disappering income like the C-J. The C-J does have a responsibility to give credit when it's due, whether it's to us or another outlet. Of course, if I were reporting a story as news four days after it appeared elsewhere, I'd probably be embarassed too. As for your reverting to a personal attack on me, it just underscores the strength of my argument. Thanks!

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