Editor: Biz profile stories are not an endorsement

Ken Tingley of the Glens Falls Post-Star in New York state writes about how some readers are perceiving a regular business profile story in the paper.

Tingley writes, “For the past few months our business reporter Jamie Munks has been writing an ongoing series every Tuesday on local businesses called ‘Business Connection.’

“The intent of the series is to tell the unique stories of local businesses. Many times, Jamie has found a business that we have not heard of before, or one that has a unique niche in the marketplace. The goal – like most of our feature stories – is to tell interesting stories about the people who run the businesses.

“The stories are never meant to be an endorsement.

“One person commented on poststar.com this week that by writing a story we are endorsing a business. The reader believed we should review the quality of the business product. In this case, the story was on food service establishment and the reader thought we should have reviewed the quality of the food, the service and the price.

“We believe those are very subjective viewpoints and unless you have a consistent restaurant critic or reviewer, those decisions should be left to the consumer.”

Read more here.