Hunger strike – Day 14

It would be wonderful to be able to say that respected Globe and Mail columnist Andy Willis resigned from the paper last week, after 18 years of loyal service, in support of the Blogging Hunger Strike. It wouldn’t be true, but one can dream.

In many ways, Andy’s approach to Bay Street was all too rare. He assumed that it was full of good people, good stories and necessary commerce. He protected his sources, and understood that if he was to keep up the daily breakfast of news tips from people who are largely paid to NOT talk to the press, he’d better treat these people with respect and care, so long as they didn’t deserve otherwise.

He broke many countless business news stories, and was able to uncover endless key details that few in the local media business could replicate. If a colleague was working on a rumoured story about Cisco buying Research in Motion, Andy would be happy to check it out with the people who he thought would be best placed to “talk”. People who wouldn’t talk “off the record” to anyone else at The Globe but him.

Everyone in the newsroom knew this, and they were only too happy to have his help.

Andy is also a devotee of blogs. He understands that industry subject matter experts are going to occassionally beat him to a story or two. But that doesn’t mean the story isn’t still worthy telling to the Globe’s 225,000 print subscribers. Andy was ever so careful to ensure that he mentioned his blog source, and provided a link to their site. He knew he hadn’t cribbed the piece, and wasn’t at all afraid if his online readers punched through to see where the original story came from.

Andy had pride in authourship, as any journalist would. But he was sufficiently confident of his standing in the newspaper industry that he wouldn’t pretend to have dreamt up a story which he hadn’t been the first to uncover.

As such, by being ethical, he created a fan base in the online world. An upaid army of researchers and industry experts who would be only too happy to help should the need arise. People, I would think, like Bill Vlaad at Vlaad & Co. are certain to help him with a story on the Bay Street annual bonus season because Andy respected the painstaking research that goes into Bill’s weekly blog. His call got returned first, I’ll bet, solely because of his respect for the work of others. As he might say himself, to do otherwise isn’t worth it. It is so easy to give credit.

The mistake that other members of the media make when they don’t follow Andy’s path is clear: you will be cut off, forever. Much like in World Cup soccer, you are one and done.

If a blog had good stuff this week, sufficiently good that you ripped it off, it is highly likely that it will have plenty more good stuff around the corner. And that there is even more stuff that the blogger didn’t have the time or inclination to write about, but might still be of interest to your readers. By burning the would-be relationship via unattributed copycat journalism, you have done yourself, your career and your readers a great disservice. You might even launch a hunger strike (see prior post “Hunger Strike – Day One” June 16-10).

Andy Willis and I met about 10 years ago when he wrote what I thought was a modestly unfair piece about a $50 million financing I had led for Certicom. I sent him an email pointing out the shortcomings in his research, as you might expect, and he did something very unusual. He said, as best as I can recall: “thanks for the perspective. Hadn’t heard that. Let’s have lunch.” Situation was immediately diffused, and he turned a negative Bay Street relationship into a potentially positive one.

Today, new players in the industry follow a different path. When one of our blog readers Tweeted Globe and Mail tech reporter Omar El Akkad around 9:30am on June 21st to see if he had a response to our Hunger Strike – Day Five post, Mr. El Akkad Tweeted him right back: “thanks, will post a comment”. Eight days later, no comment has yet been posted to our site. Guess that says it all. Right there, in the blink of an eye, the problem is summed up for everyone in the media who chooses to take a short cut. The accountability and transparency expected in 2010 is required of everyone. Not just the subjects of media stories.

I know that I have failed all of our loyal readers with this ineffective Hunger Strike, and for that I’m sorry. You’ve been patient to put up with two weeks of screed about the Globe’s copycat ways. Today’s the day to determine what Plan B is. Here are the obvious choices:

1) Retire from the online world.

2) Refer the matter to the Ontario Press Council.

3) Use the wonders of Canada’s Copyright laws to their fullest extent.

4) Accept life as it is and drive on.

Input welcome.

MRM