The Society of Professional Journalists has rejiggered a joint venture with a PR newswire, and the results are passing the sniff test. But was the controversial deal cleaned up or simply doused with perfume?
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The deal soon vanished from the ethics committee’s radar. But Tatum and Milana kept talking, and eventually they offered revised terms to Gary Hill, chair of the ethics committee (and director of special projects at a Minneapolis-Saint Paul TV station). Hill then was allowed to join in a November 15 conference-call meeting of SPJ directors. They voted 15-4 to go ahead with the deal, and Tatum says two other directors who weren’t part of that conversation have told her since they also support it.
So does Hill. “I thought it was a workable deal, and there was sufficient insulation that SPJ retained its autonomy,” he says. “There was no quid pro quo. SPJ reserved the right to develop its curriculum its own way. All along we were told the curriculum would be controlled by SPJ, but that became more explicit.”
Tatum says that because SPJ is charging Market Wire a onetime “curriculum development fee” for the first year, the programs won’t be available to Market Wire’s competitors. “But this does not prohibit us from taking this show on the road [immediately] and offering it to civic groups.”
Covering the News You Make
For example, Ralph Russo’s AP story, which ran in the Sun-Times, simply said, “Smith had 801 first-place votes and won the Heisman by 1,662 points.” The Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein said, “Smith earned 87 percent of the first-place votes, the highest share in the award’s history.” Even though the New York Times doesn’t allow its reporters to vote for athletic awards, reporter Joe Drape kept the secret, referring vaguely to “Heisman voters.”
