Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Michigan Wine columnists discusses ethics, Ann Arbor Chronicle wins first round of coverage battle

Another writer, this time a wine columnist for the Ann Arbor Chronicle, has weighed in on the issue raised here about AnnArbor.com's new wine columnist.

Hat tip to Inside Out for her post as well.

Also it was interesting to compare and contrast the coverage of a Monday City Council meeting by the now competing online newspapers in Ann Arbor.

Over at Ann Arbor Chronicle was a complete piece on the discussion and results of a controversial development in the city.

At AnnArbor.com the writer mentioned the controversy, but the site's coverage basically was a You Tube video of a woman singing her public comment about the development. No further information was given about the results of the meeting or the controversy. The AnnArbor.com reporter spent five hours at a City Council meeting and comes back with a video of one public comment.

The AA.com reporter also mentioned a conversation he had with a resident during a break.

Style over substance. Ann Arbor Chronicle wins round 1.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typical Tony. Get the comments from the public first, actual details of the story later, if at all.

inky said...

Style?

In effect, story might as well have read, "Wow dude, like I went to cover this city council meeting and, ya know, like people were arguing about a bunch of, like, you know, issues and stuff. Here's my video ... it's really super awesome."

Jim of L-Town said...

"Style" was admittedly generous. My point was that if the reporter was there at the meeting and was going to post something about it, might as well have given the reader some information about the decisions made along with the video.

Ann Arbor Chronicle managed to do both, although they didn't have a You Tube of the video, which, frankly, I could have done without.

If they are saving the story until launch on Friday, that seems like the news will be dated and well behind what their competitor has already done.

They had a chance to make a good first impression on a breaking news story and dropped the ball.

Brown said...

It was courteous of Tony to add a link to the Chronicle story; maybe AnnArbor.com should just function as one giant link to the Chronicle rather than try to cover stories with kids who have to be burped and changed every couple of hours.

Anonymous said...

Further proof that Tony Dearing and his gang of amateurs are all style, no substance. Thank you for introducing me to the Ann Arbor Chronicle. If I lived in Ann Arbor, that's where I'd go for in depth reporting.