Nick Martin of Heat City in Phoenix has more information about the brouhaha over newspapers throughout the country running the same personal finance advice columns under different bylines.
Martin writes, “From there, it wasn’t hard to find a page on the association’s website titled “Request Articles,” in which the association’s members can sign up to receive free pre-written stories, which the group says ‘can be used in whole or in part, and can serve as story ideas for personal finance coverage.’
“Some of the group’s members took the suggestion a little too far.
“This afternoon, a spokeswoman with the Financial Planning Association, based in Denver, told me its members are not supposed to pass the articles off as their own, but they are allowed to reprint the articles with their names attached as long as they disclose that they ‘provided’ the article as a surrogate of the association.
“A written guideline for its members, however, is less than clear about the matter. It says: ‘You will notice at the end of each article a tagline which states the article is provided by you as a member of the FPA. Unless you substantially rewrite the articles for publication in your local newspaper or client newsletter, we ask that you use this tagline.'”
Read more here.
