At this rate, we ought to call up Copley Newspapers and ask what the health benefits are like.
The Dover/New Philadelphia Times-Reporter doesn't have us on staff, but it would sure seem like it after the latest article about the move of the station currently known as WJER-FM.
The article is based entirely upon our most recent entry, just below, which linked pictures of the construction going on at the site that will house the tower, equipment and antennas for both Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 Canton (your guess as to when it'll be taken over by Clear Channel is as good as ours at this point), and incoming Clear Channel station 101.7 FM, that aforementioned current WJER-FM.
OK, so we're still flattered by the attention. But after this, we have to make one thing clear.
We have not initiated either of the recent articles on the WJER-FM move, or for that matter, anything the T-R has published off of items originally posted on this site.
In fact, to this date, we've had NO direct contact with anyone at the newspaper, including via telephone, fax, E-Mail, in person or any other way we're forgetting to mention. They're readers here, just like you, and apparently feel we're a "solid" enough source...well, despite the fact that they have no idea who "we" are.
We're proud to say that we are generally considered a reputable online publication by most of the Northeast Ohio broadcast industry, and beyond.
However, we are...well...just a blog. And the newspapers which quote us extensively...well, we've never talked to them.
And it kind of puzzles us that we - such as we are - have become a respected enough "first source" for a local daily newspaper to use without any further reporting on its own part. It's not something we're used to seeing in journalism.
But overall, we don't mind. If the folks at the Times-Reporter wish to continue using our material here, that's fine with us. But we just thought we'd clear the air a little...
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
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11 comments:
Thanks for your fine "ACCURATE" postings on WJER. At least I know your source is precise and truthful.
Thanks again,
~~NPHSQUAKER.
P.S. FOR EVERYONE'S INFO: I HAVE NEVER WORKED FOR WJER OR OMW. I AM A READER. THANKS
To the Times-Reporter's Credit, they did attempt to get comment from Petricola and Kennedy, though their calls were'nt returned
Isn't this more accurately referred to as plagiarism?
Not necessarily, since the articles credit OMW throughout..I would think if OMW thought it was, he would be in contact with the T-R himself.
As long as some credit is given to the author, I would think it's okay. I had an article from my blog condensed and published in the Rittman Post about a month ago. No pay, but I was given the byline.
On a similar note, I asked the Repository(Mike Hanke) a couple years ago for permission to copy/paste a feature article on WIVM-52 to some DBS Message Boards I am a part of..He said it was fine as long as I gave ample credit to the Repository.
I did not realize attribution to the source was made. I should have read more carefully. Regardless, OMW's point is well made. As I jokingly tell my students, "If you read it on the internet, it must be true. Right?"
Oh, we're not going after them for plagiarism or anything. As noted, they attributed to us quite extensively.
We're just wondering how Internet blogs written by anonymous people got to be primary sources in the newspaper world, that's all.
BTW, we hear out of OMW reader Keith Kennedy (WKDD/WHLO/WARF/new101.7) that he hasn't received any calls from the T-R, and has no messages from anyone there to return.
-The Management
Good question. What happened to multiple sources?
thank you so much for standing up for journalism and what it means, even though these T-R articles benefit your blog. i think it is shoddy, yellow, irresponsible journalism to use a blog with anonymous authors (bloggers) as an official news source.
i have a degree in journalism. i know that the times reporter should know better. they do know better. they just don't care.
whether or not i like what is written here...or how it is written...or the flood of calls that interrupt my day and my entire life because of speculatory internet postings that make their way into the newspaper....i do appreciate that you recognize the absurdity of this.
thank you.
i hope everyone at OMW, the T-R and everyone else who takes pleasure in throwing stones around here knows that there are good people in these wjer hallways who work hard to support their families. and we're going into christmas wondering if we'll have jobs next year. if we'll have health insurance. if we'll be able to make our car payments and afford vacations. THIS IS MY LIFE you are talking about. yet you take great pleasure in batting it around like a cat with a ball of string...just because you're unhappy with someone or something from your past. i really appreciate it. you don't know me. you don't know my co-workers. you don't know what it's like.
i hope you all have tremendous job security, otherwise you could be on the wrong end of this sort of thing someday and i'll tell you something....it's not fun.
in the sake of fairness, my name is amy smith and i work at wjer.
and i like it here.
p.s. the times reporter is for sale. where are the newspaper blogs so we can start "reporting" the details?
Amy, assuming it is you, thank you for dropping by.
Some comments from the "management" here:
* We agree with you, as this item would state.
When we write these things, we have a very specific audience in mind.
This blog serves basically people either working in the radio/TV industries in Ohio, or those interested in the workings of those industries, or those who want to know about changes in those industries.
We get an average of about 1000 unique visitors a day, give or take a hundred or two on either side.
Our slowest days are just below 900 visits, and busy radio/TV news days push us over 1200 a day.
We never write these things hoping that the Times-Reporter or any other newspaper will reprint them basically in full.
Even though our previous item before this was used as the jumping point (and most of the content) of a T-R article, it didn't even occur to us that it would happen again. It probably won't, now that we've written this.
We don't write for newspapers, and our standards are not the same. They're pretty high as far as the blogosphere goes, but we don't claim to be real "journalists" here. We just try to get it right as much as we can.
And please, separate our items from some of the anonymous commenters here.
We wish no ill will upon you, or upon anyone at WJER. We were, in fact, under the impression that the station will basically survive as a whole under Mr. Petricola's operation, just solely on 1450 AM.
We don't have any information at this point that the removal of the FM frequency will change your employment or "put you on the streets".
We could be wrong, but even if we are, we do NOT cheer when people hit the unemployment line, due to the sale of an FM station to a large company, or due to budget cuts from that company and others, or whatever.
We are "pro" full employment in radio. We are basically old school, and harken to the days when most stations actually had news departments, or at least most adult-leaning stations.
This is a part of a much larger item I will put up sometime this weekend.
-The Management
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