Andrew Beaujon
May 10, 2013
10:40 am
Street Fight
Hanke Gratteau, Journatic's vice president of media services, talks about the news organization, which published stories under fake bylines at many newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune. The Tribune announced last December it would
resume working with the company on a limited basis.
Stories about Journatic's journalistic foibles "relied on twisted facts and half-truths," Gratteau says.
Last summer, there was one instance of plagiarism — and that reporter was fired. That was terrible and a breach of trust with our readers and our client. But again, that reporter was fired. Major publications around the nation have faced similar charges, and they have not been pilloried in the way we were.
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Julie Moos
Dec. 7, 2012
9:43 am
In a note to staff and
in a story published on the paper's website, the Chicago Tribune announced it is resuming work with Journatic after suspending relations following a range of ethical breaches at the Tribune and other publications.
The Tribune will use Journatic for listings, but not reported stories, according to the messages from Editor and Senior Vice President Gerould Kern and Chicago Tribune Media Group President Vince Casanova. Those listings -- usually "submitted or distributed by community organizations, local government and other groups" -- include "park district programs to village meeting agendas to youth sports scores" and will be copy edited by the Tribune to verify their accuracy.
The Tribune, an investor in Journatic, suspended work with them in July after discovering
plagiarism and fabrication in a story published for TribLocal, a hyperlocal news network serving Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs. Prior to that discovery,
"This American Life" revealed that Journatic used
fake bylines and took other ethical shortcuts.
The Chicago Sun-Times and
GateHouse end their relationships with Journatic around the same time.
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Andrew Beaujon
Sep. 21, 2012
1:26 pm
Associated Press
At the Associated Press Media Editors confab in Nashville, Tenn., AP Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Kathleen Carroll promised the service's users
it wouldn't scoop them:
"You all pay us a chunk of change to break news to you, and so we do," she said. "And once it's broken to you, we promote it on the social networks."
This isn't a new policy for the news co-op: Last year it
admonished staffers who tweeted about the arrest of an AP reporter and photographer at an Occupy protest before the news hit the wire. It's the first time I've heard it expressed in business terms, though.
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Andrew Beaujon
Sep. 14, 2012
7:09 am
Crain's Chicago Business
The Chicago Tribune has cut the number of its local editions by "about half" since suspending work with journalism-outsourcing company Journatic, Lynne Marek reports. "For instance, coverage of Evanston formerly appeared in a single edition of its own, but is now part of a broader North Shore edition," she writes.
The paper
announced in April it was investing in and hiring Journatic to produce its 22 local editions and cutting about 20 jobs from its TribLocal staff.
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Andrew Beaujon
Aug. 7, 2012
10:48 am
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Andrew Beaujon
July 27, 2012
1:37 pm
Williamsburg Yorktown Daily
The Tribune-owned Daily Press in Newport News, Va., has
removed evidence of Journatic's involvement in content on its local sites, Desiree Parker reports. That follows Parker's earlier report that a Journatic writer with the byline Mike Moreau
muffed a fact about a city council meeting, and that another with the byline Austin Prickett had bylines in Delaware and Ohio as well as in Virginia on July 3.
Now, Parker writes, the bylines are gone. But the content remains:
Inside Williamsburg, a Virginia Gazette online product, and Inside York County, a Daily Press online product, are filled with content supplied by Journatic writers whose bylines appear on hyperlocal news stories all over the U.S. The writers’ names appeared under each Williamsburg and York County article when WYDaily ran its story; the following week, those bylines had disappeared, but the content remained the same.
Also missing on Inside York County is the disclaimer on the bottom that used to let readers know the content was supplied by Journatic; in its place is an “about us” link that, when clicked, tells readers “this community news site is brought to you by the Daily Press Media Group.” As of Thursday, Inside Williamsburg still notes that its content is supplied by Journatic.
Parker's story doesn't have links to the original stories, but Prickett has author pages on
Inside Williamsburg and
Inside York County, as well as:
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Andrew Beaujon
July 26, 2012
1:55 pm
Chicago Sun-Times
In a letter delivered to Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould W. Kern Thursday, staffers outline Journatic's documented journalistic sins -- including plagiarism and use of fake bylines -- then ask why the Tribune is "seeking to salvage its relationship with Journatic when as a matter of policy it declares zero tolerance for such behavior?” Kim Janssen reports:
The letter, delivered to Kern Thursday morning, refers to other incidents of plagiarism and false bylines at other Journatic clients, including the Houston Chronicle, and says “repeated incidents of false bylines and false datelines, along with plagiarism, have been exposed at several Journatic clients.” The Tribune suspended the use of Journatic following the discovery of the plagiarized article earlier this month.
The journalists know Kern shares "our concerns about the Tribune’s credibility," they write. But they say they want answers from Tribune management about what the Tribune’s relationship with Journatic will be in the future.
Here's the letter's text:
July 25, 2012
Dear Gerry:
There is deep frustration and concern in the newsroom over the Tribune’s continued relationship with Journatic, one that threatens to jeopardize our credibility--the one thing that most distinguishes us to our readers and advertisers. (more...)
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Jeff Sonderman
July 23, 2012
7:32 am
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Julie Moos
July 22, 2012
10:41 am
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Anna Tarkov
July 19, 2012
11:09 am
We’ve become familiar with the way Journatic — and the news organizations that outsource to it — are gathering and publishing local “micro-news” like school lunch menus, death notices, high school sports scores and real estate transactions. But we wondered: … Read more
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