Salt Lake Tribune Reporters Don’t Give Credit
I was interviewed by a reporter from The Salt Lake Tribune about the oil refineries near Salt Lake City. The quote from me is here:
Steven found me because of my entries on Pick Me! about the refineries:
In my interview with him, I specifically said that he had permission to quote me, but he needed to give my website credit by citing the link. He didn’t need to make sure that the Tribune actually linked to me, but he had to state my website. He, however, did not. If it hadn’t been for my entry about Oil Refineries on Pick Me! he would have never found me, but he refused to state his sources. If he had read that quote in a book, he would have cited the title of the book, but because it’s a website, he feels like he doesn’t need to give that citation. I mentioned it to him and he responded:
“Well, I’m also talking to you on the phone.”
Bad form, Salt Lake Tribune. Bad form…
Hi Laura:
I have to agree here — newspapers don’t get it.
You bring up a disturbing point here that newspapers use blogs to tell others what’s happening. However, they don’t feel they can credit the blog because their readers would no longer need them. This, sadly, will be the downfall of newspapers — their inability to properly grasp blogging and embrace it. Unfortunately, if newspapers could get it, they would be highly regarded and held up because of the nature of the blogosphere and probably be seen as a powerhouse.
In our business, we spend a lot of money on newspaper advertising and our budget for this medium has been steadily rising since 1995 but our return has been declining. Our last campaign brought zero traffic from the newspaper, and I think we’ve convinced our ad agency that newspaper is dead.
Comment by Ash — 10/8/2006 @ 2:31 pm