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City of Quincy has more of a sense of journalism ethics than the owner of the local newspaper

By adamg on Wed, 04/13/2016 - 8:09pm

CommonWealth reports the city of Quincy rejected a bid by GateHouse, which owns the Quincy Patriot Ledger, for a city contract to do some rah-rah marketing about how wonderful Quincy is.

Christopher Walker, [Mayor Tom] Koch’s director of policy and information and a former reporter for the Patriot Ledger, said the mayor was concerned about ethical conflicts if the owner of the city’s major newspaper went to work promoting the image of the municipality.

Neighborhoods: 
Quincy
Topics: 
Media
Free tagging: 
Quincy Patriot Ledger
Gatehouse Media


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Comments

By h00ks on Wed, 04/13/2016 - 10:09pm.

Shutupshutupshutup...

The government is the source of all society's failings.

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By anon on Wed, 04/13/2016 - 11:33pm.

“This expertise includes delivering measurable results for our partners in traditional media, digital media, and digital services as well as having considerable content generation serving The City of Quincy tourism, news, and business,” said the bid proposal. “Further, we have extensive knowledge and relationships within The City of Quincy and the surrounding communities that may be leveraged to achieve the desired results.”

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By mediaseth on Thu, 04/14/2016 - 8:38am.

Then again my local paper was bought by a PR firm, a local real estate / property management company, and some others. There was more positive coverage after the fact, but they're not making stuff up - it is fact based if not a little selective, and at least they didn't get rid of the police logs.

Doing PR for New England cities and towns is hard. Yes, I have to single out New England though it isn't the only place in these United States where one can run into difficulties doing PR for municipalities.

Here's what I mean. You define your audience (usually, folks outside a city or town you'd like to attract), craft your message, and before you can fully execute your campaign you've managed to offend/anger/leave out a bunch of community stake holders and city hall. They fail to realize that for the marketing campaign to work, it needs to be crafted for those outside the city lines, not those already within.

If you know a firm that can please everyone, I know a city that can use the help.

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By adamg on Thu, 04/14/2016 - 12:39pm.

It's cooler AND warmer, or, at least, was for a couple of days.

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By redheadedjen on Thu, 04/14/2016 - 9:40am.

The esteemed Mayor of the City of Quincy has ethics? Oh my, that is the funniest thing I have heard all day!

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By anon on Thu, 04/14/2016 - 9:59am.

Just google corruption and Mayor Koch. (Ignore references to the famous Koch brothers, not related)

What probably happened is that the Patriot Ledger wouldn't come up with the under the table payoffs, in terms of money or jobs not specified in the RFQ, but required to do business in Quincy

There is nothing ethical about the Koch administration. Nothing.

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By M on Thu, 04/14/2016 - 10:52am.

I just assumed it was bc there weren't any "application fees" submitted...or that another person/company, who happens to be nepotistically connected, has more relevant PR experience.

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