"Building" on the ideas of others
We steal ideas. We look at papers across the state to compare ourselves and to see if there's anything we can use ourselves. We scan Web sites and blogs for the same reasons. Magazines? TV shows? Movies? Yep, yep and yep.
This is no great revelation in the newspaper world. Every journalist I've met does the same thing. It's not plagiarism. We take an idea, adapt it to our needs and to our reader needs, and make it our own.
I mention it now, after reading about the latest Andrew Baron-Amanda Congdon dustup, because we're about to publish some content that has been done elsewhere.
Sunday, we're publishing the wrapping paper contributions, sparked by the same reader participation contest as The Washington Post Magazine. Next Sunday, we're publishing reader-submitted photos of crying children on Santa's lap. Been done other places, including Ft. Lauderdale and Phoenix. Early next year, we're copying and localizing The New Yorker's backpage cartoon caption feature, using our own cartoonist, Tim Rickard.
In each case, the idea is the same; what we've done with it is different. Let's call it learning from others.
Comments (2)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
I don't know if I'd call it "stealing" (though sometimes I do). I like to think of it as a tribute to a great idea. Or something. At any rate, I do think it's best to pinch from out-of-market.
Posted on December 15, 2006 4:33 PM
Are you trying to get us Mac people riled up? ;-)
Posted on December 16, 2006 2:26 PM