Missoulian steals roanoke.com design, code
Entry updated March 25, 2008 at 7:17 p.m.
Update: The Missoula Independent has published their story on the design theft.
UPDATE: It appears that this entry is finally getting some attention. I was interviewed this afternoon by Patrick Klemz, news editor of the Missoula Independent, an alternative weekly in Missoula. They are doing a story on the design/code theft of the Missoulian that is scheduled to run soon.
When I was contacted by Patrick, I referred him to the folks in Roanoke since I no longer worked there. But I did ask that he follow-up with me for any additional questions regarding this blog entry.
I've also been contacted by another online news outlet, New West, regarding the theft. I suspect they'll also be running a story soon.
All I can say is that it's about time other media called out the Missoulian for their error.
UPDATE: It's been a number of days now, and I have yet to see any change on the Missoulian's Web site. Also, I noticed they did leave evidence in their global.css file that the CSS is pilfered: / Fix for quotation markup in IE/Win - PB / The "PB" are my initials!
The Missoulian has apparently stolen the Web site design of The Roanoke Times' site, roanoke.com. Compare my screen grabs of missoulian.com and roanoke.com to see for yourself.
A friend of mine tipped me off to the design theft, which is the first time I've seen a newspaper Web site steal the design of another newspaper site.
Not only did missoulian.com lift the layout, colors and images, but also much of the CSS (Missoulian global.css and Roanoke global.css) and JavaScript used on roanoke.com.
And I should know, having wrote much of it while working in Roanoke.
Unfortunately, the "designers" in at the Missoulian don't seem very skilled at getting things to work with their stolen design: it looks horrible in Safari and FireFox.
I've seen more prolific Web designers have their designs stolen all the time. But not in the newspaper business. The industry is just too small for something this to happen, or so I thought.
Even more ironic is that two former writers from The Roanoke Times work at The Missoulian: Pam Podger and John Cramer. Both are excellent journalists and very nice folks personally.
I'm confident their circumstance has nothing to do with the Web site design however.
Perhaps this is a sign of just how tough things are in the newspaper industry nowadays.
Regardless, stealing the design and code from another site is illegal. That copyright isn't just for show!
Eight comments
Looks like they've changed their website, now.
I'm not code savvy, but I'm not sure how much change has actually occurred on this site outside of some color and placement choices. Patrick can correct me if I'm wrong.
And if I'm not wrong, then the Missoulian needs to get its act together.
@anon.
Lindsay is correct. The site simply changes some colors. But most of the CSS remains the same, including the fact that my initials (PB) are still present in the global.css file linked in the entry.
I feel the reason they had to use someone else's code is because of the pay scale for Technology Folks in Missoula. It is usually half the median standard for the rest of the US. I guess the Missoula Luxury Tax prompted the low wage Web dude to cut some corners.
"...having wrote much of it..."
Have someone edit your copy. You embarrass yourself.
"Crouchy" newspaperman, heal thyself.
@Crouchy retired newspaperman
I agree that my entries are often in need of an editor. But you know what? It's a personal blog and often doesn't receive a second set of eyes until after entries are published.
None of the grammatical mistakes detract from the focus of the content.
Stay retired crouchy. Your comment wasn't constructive in the least.
Funny. I didn't know Jason Blair had gone into web "design"...
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