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Daily editor: Hyperlocals’ calls for payment from regional press ‘unrealistic’

marc-reevesA regional daily editor has claimed hyperlocals’ calls for payment from other outlets which follow up their stories are “unrealistic” – but says he is open to other forms of collaboration with such titles.

Marc Reeves, who edits the Birmingham Mail and its sister website Birmingham Live, says he does not believe larger news organisations “should seek permission or make payments” to pursue stories initially published by hyperlocals.

In an interview with former South Wales Evening Post and Nottingham Post journalist Jane Haynes, who runs Worcestershire-based site Wyre Life, Marc added he could not foresee a scenario where he was “going to sack a reporter” to pay hyperlocals to provide copy for him.

Marc’s comments come after Cardiff University’s Centre for Community Journalism last month secured funding from Google to develop tools aimed at helping hyperlocal titles make money from stories they publish, as well as enabling them to track other organisations picking up their content online.

Earlier this year Emma Meese, director of Cardiff-based hyperlocal trade body the Independent Community News Network, also raised concerns from members that their content was being “stolen” by bigger publishers.

But Marc, pictured, told Jane: “I don’t get the idea that we should seek permission or make payments to pursue a story published by a hyperlocal. Once it’s in the public domain it’s out there, isn’t it?

“Expecting other publishers to ignore a story because Wyre Life, or whoever, has done it first, or to pay to carry the story once it’s been published is, I think, unrealistic.

“My reporters dig out stories all the time that are picked up by [an agency] and sold on without us or them benefiting.”

But Marc also expressed an interest in collaborating with hyperlocals in other ways, admitting there had been a past “arrogance” in the way mainstream media outlets had treated the hyperlocal sector.

He said: “I am definitely open to the idea of working together. That might involve exchanging resources, sharing information and expertise, working together on stories or campaigns – I can see merit in that type of holistic approach, one in which we are spreading our wings a bit more into the edges around Birmingham.

“It would be great for campaigns like BrumFeeds [Birmingham Live’s campaign to collect food donations and cash for homeless and vulnerable people] to be shared across as many media as possible.

“We could pre-arrange joint coverage, have collection points in outlying communities where hyperlocals operate, and so on.

“But we are massively constrained financially. So if I wanted to, say, pay a hyperlocal or group of hyperlocals to provide copy to us, am I going to sack a reporter to do so? I can’t see that happening.”

16 comments

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  • August 16, 2018 at 7:33 am
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    We are taking their readers and their advertising revenue. It would be churlish to expect them to pay us for the stories they pinch too 😉

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  • August 16, 2018 at 7:53 am
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    National papers have been helping themselves to stories uncovered by regionals for years and so on down the food chain… regionals nicking stories from local weeklies etc. I’ve always thought it was wrong but can’t see what the solution is because it would be too hard to police/monitor. But those Oxbridge graduates who walked into jobs on national newsdesks with no experience and consider themselves real journalists should think again

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  • August 16, 2018 at 8:34 am
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    The gulf between the Hyperlocals and the big publishers in financial terms is as vast as it is between them and the likes of Facebook. You can’t on one hand have the upper echolons argue they should receive more in compensation from the social media platforms while then stealing, because that’s what it is, work from the Hypers while not paying a penny for it.

    I would also argue strongly that you would not be taking a journalists pay as they are more than likely having to take someone else’s hard work because they have already got rid of the staff they need to do this job themselves or would get rid of one if they can get it for free elsewhere.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 10:10 am
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    “So if I wanted to, say, pay a hyperlocal or group of hyperlocals to provide copy to us, am I going to sack a reporter to do so? I can’t see that happening.”
    Er, that is already happening, isn’t it? Staff at the big companies are being ruthlessly culled while news sites and papers are relying more and more on submitted and obviously free copy from Joe Public.
    Or have I been on a completely different planet for the last five years?

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  • August 16, 2018 at 10:33 am
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    Sorry, but I have to agree with Marc on this one. As he rightly says, once something is in the public domain it is free for anyone else to publish. As per the earlier comment, the nationals, agencies, regional TV, and rival regional newspapers have been doing it to the local press for decades without paying a penny. It’s unfortunate for the hyperlocal sites struggling to survive, but surely they didn’t start up with the aim of making loads of dosh, surely it was to make a difference in their local area. By having their stories picked up further up the media ‘food chain’ they are achieving that aim more effectively.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 11:58 am
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    Surely a half way solution would be for the regional dailies to credit the story they ‘pinch’ to the hyperlocal, and vice versa. It wouldn’t generate cash, but at least give recognition.

    Or pay the hyperlocal to cover a patch for a bigger paper. Although finding the money would be the issue.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 12:16 pm
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    ‘It’s unfortunate for the hyperlocal sites struggling to survive, but surely they didn’t start up with the aim of making loads of dosh, surely it was to make a difference in their local area. By having their stories picked up further up the media ‘food chain’ they are achieving that aim more effectively.’

    And there is the arrogance – No, many started like us as entrepreneurs, and yes to make a difference because of lack of local coverage – we probably shouldn’t be paid, because we get leads from them as soon as they’re in the public domain too, and publish stories developed from them – without pre-roll video ads, without misleading headlines, without surveys, without pop-up ads – and make a decent amount of money – and we grow and grow and eat into there effectiveness. Death by a thousand cuts. ‘Achieving that aim more effectively’ – what a crass statement. ‘Hyperlocals or independents are more agile, more mature in approach and more listened too and trusted, certainly in our region than the nonsense syndicated out of area stuff published daily. They’ve been talking about collaboration for years, we got very close to it, but they soon turned away and never came back to talk. ReachPLC is the group I’m referring to for clarity here in this case.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 1:00 pm
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    As the owner of a hyperlocal, I’m annoyed by this article. We have never requested money, but when a REACH title cuts and pastes the quote taken from OUR anonymous source and then passes it off as their own ‘told the…’, then it feels completely unfair.

    This happened to us and this regional title initially claimed to have been contacted by the person as well. He was a friend and the conversation was in a pub, so no idea how that happened.

    I did request they replace the ‘told the xxxxxxxxxxxx’ and correctly credit us here with a link to our site, we’d be more than happy. It still remains unchanged and they didn’t reply.

    But, oh boy do the big boys contact us when we don’t post an site exclusive pic on social media, preventing them from doing a cut and paste.

    It’s all one-way. Most hypers I talk to think a credit would be fine. The big nationals credit their sources most of the time, so why not regional

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  • August 16, 2018 at 1:30 pm
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    @Hawkdown

    “without pre-roll video ads, without misleading headlines, without surveys, without pop-up ads – and make a decent amount of money – and we grow and grow and eat into there effectiveness.”

    That’s a brilliant take-down of everything wrong with regional newspaper websites at the moment…! Wish I could give that multiple likes.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 1:56 pm
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    To me it’s more about giving a proper credit rather than paying (which is never going to happen).For a major city daily to say “as reported by the Bugle.Com website” gives much needed credibility to that source which is really important when trying to become established. And don’t get me started on the BBC and their mealy-mouthed “according to a local newspaper”.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 2:40 pm
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    Rochdale Online is a 20-year-old highly successful so-called ‘hyperlocal’ (why are newspapers local but websites hyper?) that employs six people and has an average of over 160,000 unique visitors per month. We do not take kindly to others helping themselves to the sweat of our brow, and for those who think you can not do anything about it we refer you to the following:

    https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/david-and-goliath-legal-battle-sees-rochdale-online-win-payout-from-manchester-evening-news-over-lifted-news-story/

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  • August 16, 2018 at 2:43 pm
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    Ex-regional journo says: ” It’s unfortunate for the hyperlocal sites struggling to survive, but surely they didn’t start up with the aim of making loads of dosh, surely it was to make a difference in their local area.”

    Did you work as a journalist to make a difference in your area or for the salary? We rather suspect you didn’t work for free and whilst you wanted to make a difference you always wanted paying for your work.

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  • August 16, 2018 at 7:55 pm
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    Marc Reeves doesn’t understand journalism in 2018.

    The views, as portrayed in this article, display a rather typical local (no longer regional) newspaper arrogance and a total lack of understanding of the changes which have taken place over the last ten years.

    Independents (hyper-locals) are people’s businesses and, yes they wish to make a difference, but they need to make a profit as much as Reach does.

    Don’t steal my photos, don’t steal my quotes, don’t steal my stories and DON’T copy and paste my story that has literals (damn). When that happens it is a giveaway for what passes for journalism in some parts.

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  • August 17, 2018 at 10:27 am
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    @Richard Weston “Don’t steal my photos” LOL

    Well, when my copyrighted images have been ‘stolen’ the perperators get a really nice hand-crafted and personal invoice with 14 days to pay. Seems to work too. 😉 Although the excuses they come up with are laughable.
    Of course with words, it’s a different matter.

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  • August 17, 2018 at 10:44 am
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    Thanks @webmonkey
    And @hyperspace – exactly – don’t tweet the exclusives,
    the RDs are just trawling through a TweetDeck setup all day with your name on it – at least they then have to keep visiting your site to find out what’s the latest :-)

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  • August 19, 2018 at 1:03 pm
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    When an article is published it is out there but since when was it ok to steal quotes wholesale? An agency took my story and quotes and had the arrogance to say this was ok. Actually the family involved were anonymous because they were in a dangerous situation and I was the only journo to have spoken to them. So, if a legal issue comes up I have my shorthand notes to support me, what does the agency/buyer have? Nothing other than’well, they published it.’ Reach also like to take things instead of teaching their journalists to source information (you know, journalism). How copy pasting helps a young journo develop their career I’m sure I don’t know. And finally, yes I run a hyperlocal due to a passion and love for providing local news. I also need to be paid. My mortgage cannot be paid with a passion IOU and my website host does not take love notes in lieu of cash. I have got off my backside to go and speak to people and find out the details of a story and expect it to pay me not provide fodder so someone else can justify getting a salary that they are doing nothing to earn.

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