The site that must not be named

A Connecticut paper's coverage of an upstart online competitor reminds me of the very different tack that a local paper here in Benicia, Calif., takes whenever it is forced to refer to GetLocalNews.com's BeniciaNews.com.

The Benicia Herald, which has no web site, stubbornly refuses to make any direct mention of BeniciaNews, which was our first site when we started GetLocalNews.com five years ago.

Here's how silly it gets: When a former city manager recently filed a claim against a councilman over a comment made in the BeniciaNews.com message board, the Benicia Herald (not the site linked in this graf) referred only to "a local web site."

I'm not sure the newspaper ever has mentioned BeniciaNews.com by name. I told the editor he's making us feel a bit like the evil Lord Voldemort, who, in the Harry Potter books, is known as "he who must not be named."

Comments

[Allan Shore]

Don't feel so special: the Benicia Herald refused to cover (without enormous pressure) the coming together of over 30 businesses to have a Holiday Stroll shopping night in an effort to bring more people to First Street. Their obsession with not mentioning businesses who don't pour in advertising money first (a self-defeating proposition) has gotten to the point of sheer idiocy ... and something that many of us are trying to get them to overcome. So while I'm sure the publisher views you as directo competition, his insecurity goes much deeper.

Allan