Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

Absolutereturn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:22:19 -0000

Hello,

Nice post I Like your site very well and continue to do so.

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

MaryAlan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:14:16 -0000

This is a really interesting debate. I've gone through and read the original Post article, and I read The Gawker blog post in question. In my opinion, The Gawker did nothing wrong by quoting the Post article extensively. The most obvious point which proves The Gawker article was not plagiarised -- The author used large quotation marks to distinguish unoriginal content from original content!

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

TheJLV (Jose) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:39:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea I don't. Found it from one of my friends on facebook. Use their contact page. Make it happen.

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

blogdiva (Liza Sabater) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:34:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@TheJLV do you know them? they need a wiki, like, yesterday. this kind of project needs it.

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

TheJLV (Jose) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:36:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea you can always add your voice, miss. not that you weren't. just haven't seen many others do it besides u and I.

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

blogdiva (Liza Sabater) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:35:43 -0000

Twitter Comment

@TheJLV for PR they mention Schomburg but not Sylvia del Villar?!?!? oh snap. let me get my blade :D it's a HUGE project. good 1st effort ;)

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

TheJLV (Jose) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:37:56 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea oh yes!

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

TheJLV (Jose) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:36:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea it's ours :-)

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

blogdiva (Liza Sabater) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:40:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@drlawmom thanks bb. been working mighty hard indeed. son's arm is more scaly than crusty. looks gross :P thanks for asking.

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

blogdiva (Liza Sabater) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:39:43 -0000

Twitter Comment

@TheJLV no! who's site is it?

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

blogdiva (Liza Sabater) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:38:44 -0000

Twitter Comment

@TheJLV tl;dr :D is it an actual video series?

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

TheJLV (Jose) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:37:46 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea did you see this? http://bit.ly/DzKUH

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

drlawmom (Dr. Candi Wallace) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:36:43 -0000

Twitter Comment

@blogcodea Missed you past few days. Working hard, mom duty or both? Congrats on kid's cast removal! Skin's all crusty tho' huh? Yuck.

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

liza — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:48:27 -0000

may I point out it's summer, readership usually is down and henceforth "the death of journalism" articles have become the way for media companies to concern troll their way into linkbaiting if not linkwhoring their way out of low CPMs?

want more proof? LIFE.com's kissing Digg's proverbial pingback
http://twitter.com/LIFE/sta...

WTF?!?!

so ... yeah ... nothing to see here. this has happened every single year since at least 2003 when i first heard of the "death of journalism" meme.

expect it to happen again in February (when ad buys for the year will once again not happen like in the golden years) and next year's summer.

meh.

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

William Mougayar — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:51:11 -0000

The key thing that Gawker provided him is access to an online audience that wouldn't have read the story on WaPo. On the strength of that segment, it boosted the whole story's readership.
If this was an AP originating story, Gawker would have had to pay AP to re-publish it (even in abreviated form)- hence that's why the editor is upset about this.
A case could be made that Gawker should pay something to reprint a story that originated elsewhere. Links back are not a form of payback (although they could be monetized).
On the other hand, how different is this from Gawker re-publishing a story from Techcrunch for e.g.?

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

mathewi (Mathew Ingram) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:44:43 -0000

Twitter Comment

@drbrake: I'm guessing, but I'll bet most of the people who thought that would never have seen the WaPo story in the first place

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

William Mougayar — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:50:41 -0000

Shapira has now over 200 comments on his post, and he made it on Techmeme. Perhaps @ianshapria should have another talk with his editor!

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

mathewi — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:07:03 -0000

Yes, I think that's a fair point Ryan. But the same could be said of any site -- or any publication for that matter -- that specializes in commentary, analysis, satire etc.

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

mathewi — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:55:17 -0000

Yes, I agree that "via" links are not sufficient -- and I agree Gawker could have done better on the attribution front.

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

DrPangloss — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:49:58 -0000

Good note. A small point, Shapria got 2 stories, so to speak, for the price of one. Also it seems that wisdom doesn't in the new media era necessarily come with age. Assuming of course that Shapira's editor is older than he is.

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

Ryan Holiday — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:46:01 -0000

Mathew,

I don't mean to put words in the reporter's mouth but there is something strange about all this that no one talks about. Gawker essentially outsourced all the labor of the story to the Washington Post and at the same time gets credit for being lean and efficient and profitable. Apparently the paper is supposed to be grateful for the link.

I'm not saying the solution is lawsuits or more complaining but it's just funny that people like to hold up these sites for their business models and then don't examine the subsidies they take advantage of.

Ryan

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

William Mougayar — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:45:33 -0000

Mathew,
I'm with you on most of it, and have been watching the ping pong on that story (or Ying Yang). "Death of Journalism" was a slight exaggeration.

The irony is that Gawker's coverage gave him a boost in click-backs and notoriety, and that's the sad truth that native online media is trumping mainstream online media (in most cases). And they did that without adding any value in terms of analysis or viewpoint (unlike Techdirt which adds something).

At the end of the day, it's about monetization. Shapira's last post received 100+ comments vs. ~ 70 for Gawker (am not sure about # of Views), so it's up to WaPo to monetize that traffic to make-up for their "loss".

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

mathewi (Mathew Ingram) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:37:59 -0000

Twitter Comment

@harrisj @palafo: possible -- I know from personal experience that that kind of thing happens sometimes :-)

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

harrisj (Jacob Harris) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:41:59 -0000

Twitter Comment

@palafo @mathewi headline was likely written by a copy editor?

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Re: Gawker, the WaPo and the death of journalism

mathewi (Mathew Ingram) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:41:00 -0000

Twitter Comment

@harrisj: a key word in your description is "often" :-) still, point taken.

- Posted using Chat Catcher