Its great that you want credit for breaking news, but I don't think you understand how it works. When USA Today breaks news, then the New York Times will see that they are behind and they will send someone else out to cover the story that USA Today broke. Although USA Today broke that news and the Times heard it through them, they still send their own reporter to re dig up the same information. But they won't cite the times. That's just not how the media works. It never has for hundreds of years and it's not gonna change now. You only cite another news source if you can't go back and get that info yourself, but most places don't have that problem. So quit crying about it please Mike, it may seem unfair, but the media has worked that way long before you were involved and it will continue that way long after.
I agree. Who cares who broke the news first? It doesn't matter. Not to me, anyway. I come to this site every day to get the news, and I know I'm going to get the news here, and that's all that matters to me. I don't care if they cribbed it from another site, another reporter, whoever, whatever. All that matters is that I get the news, and I know I'm going to get it here. I'd rather go to one website and get all the news, stolen or otherwise, than go to four or five other sites and gather bits and pieces of news. Plus I love the wisecracks.
My only complaint? You should put a halt to the "anonymous source" stuff - that stuff reeks of "made up" news.
Exactly, he called out the Boston Globe or whatever Boston paper it was, but that's just the way the business works. Newspapers don't site other newspapers, or other news outlets. When they hear the news from one of them, they steal it and go dig up sources themselves. It's very rare for lie i said, the NY Times to give usa Today credit, so why should PFT be held to a higher ground? Plus everyone that matters knows who breaks the news first anyways. The media knows of Mike's reputation and the fans do too, it's really a dumb complaint given the nature of the journalism business.
But it does matter to other people, namely the site's advertisers.
I understand that stealing and re-digging has been done for decades, but I think that there are a few issues here which are new do to the relationship between internet news sites and newspapers. Websites like ESPN and SI.com routinely leech news from newspapers and the quote them too. They don't have a problem quoting the newspapers because they aren't really competitors. Neither of those sites has a daily publication. Also, those who are "plugged-in" or internet savvy know that the place for sports news is not an individual newspaper's sports page. They can get much more up to date info from a larger variety of regions on sites like ESPN or SI.com. These major sports sites, while admittidly featuring plenty of original content, have still made a living reporting other print outlets' news. Those sites leave the beat reporting to the newspapers and instead have their reporters specialize in opinion or criticism pieces. Those who do not browse the internet often don't care about any types of sites and are pleased with their hometown newspaper's sports coverage. ESPN and SI.com rely more heavily on internet advertiser income than newspapers do. For these reasons, I see the dedicated sports sites and newspaper sites not as competitors.
What sucks for a site like profootballtalk is that the major sports sites can wait for a newspaper to "steal" the news from profootballtalk and then quote the newspaper in their own article. A major sports site would very rarely if ever quote an outlet like profootball talk as a source. You don't see major newspapers quoting each other because they are in the same market. In order to report the same news, however, the newspapers would have to send their own reporters to it. ESPN and the like can get away with being lazy and not doing the "dirty work" necessary. ESPN can profit from profootballtalk's work without doing any work themselves.
Crummy situation and I don't see a solution. Feel free to agree or disagree.
