If you follow media in the state, you couldn’t help but notice the story that broke this morning where the Roanoke Times decided to sue its former Virginia Tech beat writer – Andy Bitter – because Bitter would not give back his Twitter handle and its 27,000 followers when he left to go work for The Athletic.
I read the comments of at least three sportswriters on Twitter this afternoon and they all said this case will be “interesting.” Which they have to say because the chain that owns the Roanoke Times owns most of the newspapers in the state, including the one in Charlottesville.
If I may translate what they probably mean to say – and what I definitely mean to say – is that this is one senseless knucklehead move by the Roanoke Times.
In the interests of disclosure, I worked for the Roanoke Times from 1978-1981. I met my wife of 38 years there. I still have friends that work there and have fond feelings for the publication. Also in the interests of disclosure, the parent company of the Roanoke Times is the same company that directed the Charlottesville newspaper to part company with my close friend, Jerry Ratcliffe. We’re not going there, but obviously I have no similar fond feelings for that operation.
From a legal standpoint, I’m sure we could have an interesting discussion of who owns a Twitter account if an individual built it up to a certain point (which Bitter did) but then leaves the company. You could argue it is intellectual property, and the newspaper provided the office, desk, computer and environment of which the followers were created, so they own it. You could equally argue that Twitter is a 24/7 entity in which you have to be constantly in contact with others on social media to gain such a following, and since Bitter wasn’t paid for 24/7 hours of work, they’re his.
But I’m not going to argue those sides. I’m going to argue the business and marketing merits of the situation, which essentially point to the newspaper executives as dumber than dirt.
Newspapers aren’t the most popular entities on the block these days. They need to take more care to protect their brand than the average business, and this lawsuit just diminishes the Roanoke brand. They look like vindictive schoolyard bullies who feel the need to punish an individual who left for greener pastures. It’s not enough that you can read just about every day stories about some talented writer who ends up with no job because a large corporation needed to cut costs. Now, to make things worse, when somebody leaves to avoid such a fate, you go after them for something as trivial as 27,000 Twitter followers?
That’s just the beginning of this highly questionable tale. In their filing, the Roanoke Times claimed that in order to regenerate that many followers, it would take 7 years and cost $150,000. How they arrived at those numbers isn’t clear other than Bitter worked in Roanoke for 7 years. But what is clear is they must think all of us out in Timesland are dumber than dirt too.
By comparison, we here at JerryRatcliffe.Com launched our Twitter feed 6 weeks ago today at around 5 PM. There’s just the two of us, and through hard work and a consistent presence, we already have over 3,000 followers. It isn’t rocket science and just takes consistency and patience. Roanoke could easily replicate that and by having tens of thousands of newspaper subscribers, they have many more tools than we will ever have. But we’re expected to believe it will take 7 years. Maybe if Bitter had 27 MILLION followers. But not 27,000.
After taking all this in, take a step back and ask yourself “what is the Roanoke Times getting out of this?” The Virginia Tech beat is their prime beat. Most of their readership will follow whoever takes that beat. A dog with a note in his mouth will rack up 10,000 followers by Thanksgiving if he’s assigned the Virginia Tech beat. Why drag your brand through the mud for something that has so little value? That’s what I can’t understand. Somebody at that newspaper has to have some marketing experience to realize what they’re doing to their brand.
So far today, I’ve seen stories in the Washington Post, Deadspin, The Richmond Times-Dispatch…even the Drudge Report. The Roanoke Times is a national story, and not in a good way. They are portrayed as the mean gigantic corporation out of touch with reality, sticking it to a likeable, hardworking individual just trying to get ahead.
All for 27,000 followers.
Look, if we’ve learned anything here at this site in launching this business, you have to stand for something. You have to be perceived as fair, even likeable. You have to be someone people trust. And you have to be consistent.
Imagine you’re now debating subscribing to not only Roanoke, but any of the other newspapers owned by the parent company (Berkshire Hathaway) in this state. Does this lawsuit make them any more likeable? Any more trustworthy? If you were a potential employee, would you want to work for a place that sues its former employees? If you’re a current employee, how happy does this make you tonight?
It just makes no sense. They look like boorish, vindictive idiots which will cost them subscribers and advertisers and hurt their business. And for what?
27,000 followers.