Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » Ohio

ABC News: US judge sues newspaper for disclosing anonymous commenter details

Judith Townend — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:56:56 +0000

A judge in Ohio has filed a law suit against The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, which claimed she may have commented anonymously on the newspaper’s website about court cases, ABC News reports.

According to [judge] Saffold and her attorney, Spitz, any comments from the username “lawmiss” connected to cases involving Saffold were most likely left by the judge’s 23-year-old daughter, Sydney, an aspiring law student.

Full post at this link…Similar Posts:

Editor&Publisher: Ohio newspapers to publish joint reporting project

Laura Oliver — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:33:29 +0000

A group of newspapers in Ohio, which last year joined forces to share content and ditch the Associated Press, is preparing to publishing its first joint reporting project next week.

According to last week’s report from Editor&Publisher, at least one reporter from each of the seven papers involved has been committed to the story on public employee pensions. Each paper has contributed examples from its area of the state and will run a main piece alongside local content specific to its region.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

AP: Amish newspaper is a non-electric internet, says publisher

Judith Townend — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:55:12 +0000

Keith Rathbun, publisher of the Ohio-based Amish newspaper, the Budget, isn’t worried about the threat to newspaper sales posed by the internet, reports the Associated Press. While the paper does have an online presence, http://www.thebudgetnewspaper.com/, only local news briefs are available.

“People call The Budget the Amish Internet,” Rathbun says. “It’s non-electric, it’s on paper, but it’s the same thing.”

Full story at this link…

Related: British journalism student Jessica Best undertook a two week internship at the paper earlier this summer with the aid of a travel grant, and shared some of her interpretations on her blog.

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Advancing The Story: Is state-funded news ethical?

Laura Oliver — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:20:51 +0000

KOTV and KWTV, two Ohio-based broadcasters, are to run stories about a state-sponsored insurance program – and getting funded by the state themselves for doing so, according to Advancing The Story.

ATS suggests the way in which the programmes are being broadcast hasn’t been transparent enough about the state aid.

But is there a way for news organisations to run paid-for stories in an ethically responsible way?

Full post at this link…Similar Posts:

Media Release: Winner of World Press Photo Contest announced

Laura Oliver — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:27:43 +0000

Anthony Suau takes top prize in photography contest for his image of home evictions in Cleveland, Ohio.

Full release at this link…Similar Posts:

Editor&Publisher (AP): Joe the Plumber turns war correspondent?

Judith Townend — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:06:17 +0000

AP reports that Joe the Plummer, the man from Ohio who became a ‘household name’ during the US presidential campaign, says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com. Full story…Similar Posts:

RCFP: Ohio newspaper allowed access to deleted state emails

Laura Oliver — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:21:18 +0000

Ohio’s Toledo Blade newspaper has gained access to deleted emails from Seneca County commissioners through an ‘open records law request’.

The Supreme Court ordered officials to search for the missing emails – some had been handed over to the paper by the county.Similar Posts:

US elections: the best of the rest on the web

Laura Oliver — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:53:50 +0000

For those that have been under a rock/on Mars for the last year, the next President of the United States will be decided tonight, giving news organisations another opportunity to flaunt their interactive, live reporting and user-generated wares as the votes unfold.

We’ve already covered Sky News’ election coverage and BBC News’ live online plans, but here’s our round-up of some of the best projects out there – open up twenty browser tabs, sit back and enjoy:

NYTimes.com: the paper has set up a political ‘word train’ visualising how readers are feeling. It’ll update with new answers every 30 minutes (thanks to @matthewbuckland for the link). Elsewhere the site’s homepage is dominated by election coverage, with plenty of images and video – making use of the new video player – and a pop-up results widget.
Twitter Vote Report: the microblogging tool has been harnessed by a network of volunteers to map voters’ experiences at the polls. Tweets tagged with waiting times (e.g. #wait 120 for a 120 minute delay) are plotted creating a rapidly updating map of problems. Could be a great service for local newspapers in the states to provide:

Current: using Twitter, as it did during the presidential debates, the site and channel will integrate Tweets, Digg headlines and video from 12seconds as part of an election broadcast.
WashingtonPost.com: the paper has gone for an aggregated approach, pulling together all strands of its election day coverage on a map. The TimeSpace: Election graphic shows photos, video, articles, tweets, posts and audio and lets you scroll through the day with a timeline:

Yahoo: created a one-stop shop, US election microsite drawing together all of its features, including forums, Yahoo Answers, AP and Politico stories and aggregated content from external news sites, a Flickr stream of photos and options to set up news alerts on the candidates.
Hubdub: the just-for-fun news prediction site is carrying an election forecast map, which it claims is based on ’51 underlying prediction markets that respond in real-time to breaking news’. Users can view forecasts state-by-state to help them decided where to place their Hubdub dollars when predicting the outcome of questions such as ‘Who will win the 2008 US Presidential Election?’ and ‘What will be the margin of victory in the state of Ohio?’

That’s not enough, I hear you cry. You want more? Well, over at paidContent:UK, Robert Andrews has wrapped up the online coverage from the UK’s newspapers, while Online Journalism Blog chieftain Paul Bradshaw has an extensive list of online activities.

This is only the tip of the iceberg – any other great coverage, tools or websites that need a mention, let us know below.Similar Posts:

The AP ‘beginning to fracture’ as members form collectives, reduce reliance

Oliver Luft — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:37:29 +0000

The Wall Street Journal wrote this week that the 162-year-old Associated Press (AP) is ‘beginning to fracture’ as the newspaper business in the US breaks up.

The AP last week announced a new set of ‘wire’ tools and cash back options to sweeten newspaper clients that are becoming disenchanted with the fees it demands and its increasing focus providing news and information packages for web publishing and non-traditional customers like Google and Yahoo.

However, its members have already started to seek alternatives to the AP for syndicating their stories and picking up relevant content for their publications from other news providers.

Journalism.co.uk detailed in April how eight of the largest newspapers in the US state of Ohio had begun bypassing the AP and forged an alliance to share their top stories.

The Columbus Dispatch, The Toledo Blade, the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer are amongst newspapers making up the membership of the Ohio News Organization (with the unfortunate acronym, OHNO).

Rather than relying to the Associated Press to decide at the end of each news day whether or not to distribute their stories, the papers now post content to private website – accessible only to those eight newsrooms – from which partner organisations will be able to select pieces to use and publish while the stories are still hot.

But it seems that OHNO is not alone in taking this kind of stance against the AP. According to the WSJ piece, Five Montana newspapers owned by the newspaper concern Lee Enterprises have also begun sharing content. In addition, editors in Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana have inquired about how the Ohio cooperative works.Similar Posts:

Ohio’s leading newspapers to share stories across web

ruth morgan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:03:49 +0000

Eight of the largest newspapers in the US state of Ohio have forged an alliance to share their top stories.

The Columbus Dispatch, The Toledo Blade, the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer are amongst newspapers making up the membership of the newly formed Ohio News Organisation (with the unfortunate acronym, OHNO).

Rather than relying to the Associated Press to decide at the end of each news day whether or not to distribute their stories, the papers will now post content to private website – accessible only to those eight newsrooms – from which partner organisations will be able to select pieces to use.

Ted Diadiun, readers representative for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote in his blog that readerships of individual paper would not be threatened as each covers a distinct city, and that story pooling would help them provide a better news service for readers.

“In today’s world, breaking news is measured in minutes, not days,” he wrote.

“It’s important that we provide our readers with the best news reports we can, as soon as we can, on our website and in the best and most current newspaper possible each day.”

All involved are adamant that the move doesn’t signal the end of journalistic competition.

However, no mention has been made on whether any money changes hands for the use of stories or whether AP will still syndicate the stories that are being placed in the new system.

It could just be a neat way to bypass the wire service and cut the cost of using its copy for local news.Similar Posts: