The Poughkeepsie Journal apologized to the Daily Freeman and readers for “thin rewrite” of the Freeman’s story and some lifted phrases, Jim Romenesko wrote this weekend.
The Poughkeepsie Journal is a Gannett-owned daily newspaper with a circulation of about 26,000 copies, according to Mondo Times. The Daily Freeman is Journal Register newspaper and lists a daily circulation of 56,800 copies.
According to a June 10 blogpostby the Freeman’s Tony Adamis, the Journal’s story “looked suspniciously like the Freeman’s report on the same issue.” Adamis explained his response to the incident, which included a few tweets to the Journal and an e-mail to the newspaper’s executive editor. The Journal ended up conducting a review of the incident and its executive editor, Stuart Shinske gave Adamis a “profuse apology.”
The Journal itself also published a June 10 post on the incident, noting that the Journal’s story “mirrored sentences” from the Freeman’s and that the Journal’s “investigation” of the incident determined that “proper steps to create an original news story were not taken by the Journal reporter.”
For example, the Journal wrote: “Journal editors…found that a reporter’s notes and files were inadvertently blended with the Freeman online story.”
This is the online report for theDaily Freeman’s story and here is the Poughkeepsie Journal’s online story. The Journal’s story on the incident noted that “The version published online by the Journal was different than the version printed Saturday in the Journal newspaper.”
Romenesko noted that the Freeman’s life editor Ivan Lajara tweeted about the incident, and let Romenesko know about the case, including this tweet showing side by side comparison.
We wrote to the Poughkeepsie Journal’s Shinske asking about the differences between the online and print stories, what the investigation included, if the apology will be published in print and if the apology will be linked to or added to the story in question. Shinske told us by e-mail that “The story that we printed and put online today will be our only comment on the matter.”
We have also written to the Daily Freeman’s Adamis asking if it is satisfied with the Journal’s reaction. We will update with any response.
UPDATE: 6/11/2012: 9:39 AM EST: Adamis responded to our e-mail inquiry and provided us with a link to his blog and the Daily Freeman’s story on the incident. The story quoted Adamis as saying that “We had some miscommunication early in the process, but once Stu Shinske and I connected directly he gave me full confidence that our concern would be investigated and addressed. It was handled professionally and the Freeman accepts the apology without reservation.”