Several newspapers around the country have ran a “planning for retirement” column during June --- with a different byline atop the basically same text, observes Grumpy Editor.
It’s not unusual for the same material --- often distributed by public relations firms --- to appear in various publications, but a different byline gives the “syndicated” matter a new twist.
Editor & Publisher discovered the similarities and notes the column appears to have originated with the Financial Planning Association.
FPA, with offices in Denver and Washington, D.C., is home to a nationwide network of nearly 100 chapters. Along with financial planners, members include accountants, attorneys, bankers, insurance agents, stockbrokers, money managers and investment consultants.
Apparently the raw material was fed to financial planners who merely put their names atop the text that ran in their local newspapers or Web sites.
For example, East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Ariz., ran the material on June 19 with the byline of Rebecca Warren, identified as a local financial planner.
The almost same text popped up six days later in the Huntsville (Texas) Item with the byline of “Brian Smith, Item Correspondent.” Smith has been identified as a local financial planner.
E&P mentioned, “At least two other newspaper Web sites, those of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and the Chronicle of Grand Lake, Okla., have been found posting the column, with credit to other writers.”
It added that some financial Web sites also posted the column, some of them crediting FPA.
The idea of adding a local name as a byline to canned material probably was welcomed by newspapers because of the growing shortage of staffers, especially in business sections, and it provided a way to spotlight local financial planners.
Such an idea is not new.
In the past, newspaper food writers, for example, put their names on recipes provided by companies manufacturing essential ingredients. Editors did not raise eyebrows --- mainly because most never got beyond scanning sports sections.
Great piece! Have some comments at my blog on my experience in dealing with this kind of thing as an editor. Always annoying, but I always saw through it too, 100 percent of the time, proudly.
http://ajourneyinmediastudy.blogspot.com/2009/07/yikes-am-i-glad-that-as-newspaper.html
Posted by: Tony at CSUF Comm | July 02, 2009 at 04:04 AM