Why does all the "controversial" news on CN seem to be rehashed reports from elsewher

[Anonymous]

The more i look at the reports on CN (and i no longer visit but see links on twitter to articles) the more i realise that 90% of the controversial ones are just rehashed from elsewhere.

"as reported on ARD"
"as reported in the new york times"
as reported in this, as reported on that.

The reports that seem to be original are the exclusive looks at team x's kit, or team y's bike.

Are cycling news just scared of reporting anything controversial themselves in case they lose the shack banner adverts, or another teams exclusive training camp photos?

 

[miteycasey]

Welcome to the internet and access to information.
Take the population of CN report staff and compare it to all other news agencies in the world. It's probably 100000:1 so it's natural for them to pull info from other places.

If you're in the US ever notice how many articles say "with help from the AP" or something like that?

 

[nowhereman]

I think fear and loathing has been part of the reporting mix for all cycling news outlets. We never get in depth, details of anything. All is kept under a veil of secrecy. I think a lot of it is initiated by the teams and riders themselves. They want to keep their strategies to themselves. They don't want to bad mouth each other, except in rare cases. Because, you never know what team you may end up on in the near future. There is very little candid discussion, which is why I no longer buy ANY of the print publications. They're a waste of time and money. Money, because stateside, Cycle Sport, and Procycling command a hefty price for a subscription, and by the time you get the magazine, the information is woefully dated. Online is the only way to go now. But as you suggest they seem to be awfully timid in their investigative reporting (fear of losing advertising revenue, or easy access to certain riders or teams, as was intimated). And often they are not much more than any ordinary roadside fans observing and reporting just about as much as any of us could, by just watching a TV broadcast. Lots of the stories I read at CN are at best "hearsay" with all sorts of sources, including Velonation a newer start up.
Finally, I guess all we can do is gather information through these sorely lacking outlets, and hope that someday a better, more courageous outlet will become available. The only consolation is, that it's FREE! Because I wouldn't pay for it otherwise.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I made statements like this to Susan that Cyclingnews are always last to get the story or copy it from another soruce but i got shut down!

 

[Anonymous]

They do seem to consistently be very late with stories, often a day or two behind the other cycling sites even on non-controversial news.

On anything controversial they just dont seem to have the courage to report it without saying it was reported somewhere else. I can only assume it is fear of losing advertisers.

That said, most articles on cn now seem to be from other sources, they are becoming a little bit second hand.

I think 99% of my cycling news now comes via twitter links to velonews, velonation and foreign sites, I dont think ive ever seen a CN story linked that hasnt already been somewhere else at least 24 hours before.

The comment about magazines I tend to agree with, but Cyclesport can be fairly cutting at times. Probably the only magazine left with a bit of bite. Strangely their website is showing the June issue as the current one.

 

[Ferminal]

I think fear and loathing has been part of the reporting mix for all cycling news outlets. We never get in depth, details of anything. All is kept under a veil of secrecy. I think a lot of it is initiated by the teams and riders themselves. They want to keep their strategies to themselves. They don't want to bad mouth each other, except in rare cases. Because, you never know what team you may end up on in the near future. There is very little candid discussion, which is why I no longer buy ANY of the print publications. They're a waste of time and money. Money, because stateside, Cycle Sport, and Procycling command a hefty price for a subscription, and by the time you get the magazine, the information is woefully dated. Online is the only way to go now. But as you suggest they seem to be awfully timid in their investigative reporting (fear of losing advertising revenue, or easy access to certain riders or teams, as was intimated). And often they are not much more than any ordinary roadside fans observing and reporting just about as much as any of us could, by just watching a TV broadcast. Lots of the stories I read at CN are at best "hearsay" with all sorts of sources, including Velonation a newer start up.
Finally, I guess all we can do is gather information through these sorely lacking outlets, and hope that someday a better, more courageous outlet will become available. The only consolation is, that it's FREE! Because I wouldn't pay for it otherwise.

On the other hand I look forward to getting my hands on a magazine because they provide stories, articles, opinions (plus the writing is far more romantic) compared to the news sites. I never read any of the CN race reports because it's a straight out rehash of the live commentary, it's just an "as it happened". Yet I'm happy to pay to read Jean-Francois Quenet's storytelling of a race.

I rarely "read" any CN articles for reasons already stated. I look at the headline and if I go to the page I will just skim it to absorb the information. The news is so sterile.

CN might produce a dozen proper pieces of journalism or commentary all year, not enough in my opinion.

So basically CN is just a news information site, but it faces stiff competition in that area, especially from direct sources like twitter.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Would be nice to hear from Dan or Susan on this issue? It compromises Cyclingnews' news story service. The race results part is very quick, the features they do on riders, races and other VIP is quite good but the main point of the site (Cyclingnews) is lacking.

 

[straydog]

Actually I am going to leap heroically to the defence of CN here.

Their staff is tiny compared to most mainstream cycling magazines and positively minute compared to most other online news sources. Witness the fact that they can't afford to employ a proof reader full time!

Other than some monumental typos, and a few awkwardly edited interviews, I think on the whole, they do an excellent job. Of course they are going to source others for breaking news. They have to. And the fact they put "riders" on the articles they have sourced is because sometimes they also have to, if the said article contains quotes from an exclusive interview for example. They do not have the time to fully explore their potential copywright infringement, and so don't take the risk. Also, possibly, yes, on occasions, if they report a story that might paint an active sponsor in a poor light, let's say a well known bike manufacturer's wife was charged with clubbing a kitten to death with a rusty track pump, they might well post someone else's version so as not to introduce a conflict of interests. Honestly, I think they walk the line pretty impressively all things considered. And as a result their sponsors ensure that the website is free for all to read all of the latest news, whatever it's source.

 

[Anonymous]

Why did the "Cyclingnews plagiarizing articles?" thread get closed?

 

[Christian]

recyclingnews.com (The Inner Ring)

I just read this very good article on The Inner Ring about cyclingnews' and other cycling sites' sources. It even has an interesting graphic to illustrate the problem:

I agree with the author that:

- cyclingnews has very few original stories

- other sites such as cyclismactu.net have the same problem

- it is still a nice collection of cycling-related stories from the whole web, which we would otherwise either take a longer time to find (or not find at all); or not understand due to language issues.

I also think cyclingnews is slower than cyclismactu for example.

I also completely agree with the last paragraph:

Right now I am enjoying Velonation which has its fair share of recycled Euro news but plenty of original news and scoops. Cyclingnews.com is still the home page for my browser.

Exactly the same here. Velonation has more original content which is often quite interesting; yet cyclingnews is still my go-to site for forum and results.