Western Daily Press Wiltshire reporter Tristan Cork has cried foul after claiming that one of his exclusives was lifted “word for word” by the website of rival title the weekly Wiltshire Gazette.
Any defence the Wiltshire Gazette might have appears to have been somewhat undermined by the fact that the words “the Western Daily Press can reveal†appeared in exactly the same place in both stories ‒ which revealed fears that the children of armed forces personnel are being let down by the state.
Cork made full use of the Gazette’s online comment facility to add his own postscript to story, which was subsequently removed: “Readers of the Gazette will be interested to see that this story is actually from the Western Daily Press, see penultimate par. I’m not saying anyone is lazy, but they didn’t even bother to take the Western Daily Press out of ‘their’ story.
“Don’t forget ‒ the Western Daily Press is the true source of up-to-date news… the Gazette and Herald merely follows in its wake. If you want to know what’s going on in Wiltshire ‒ the Western Daily Press is out every day for just 40p.â€
Cook is seeking retribution by invoicing the paper for his work at the not-ungenorous rate of £10 per word ‒ which works out at £6,140 in total.
Axegrinder suggested to him that this rate was a little ambitious but Cook said the Gazette has got off lightly because he was going to charge them £100 a word.
Axegrinder will let you know how he gets on.
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