Tribune investigating ethics policy violation by content provider Journatic

A national radio report revealing that hyperlocal content provider Journatic used false bylines in several stories that ran in TribLocal online has prompted an investigation by the Chicago Tribune.

Journatic, brought in to run part of the Tribune's community news operation, has acknowledged its mistake and said it would discontinue the practice. "This American Life," which is produced by Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM, included a 23-minute segment focusing on Journatic's use of low-paid Filipino freelancers to cull and format information for stories, some of which were published under aliases. In interviews this weekend with the Tribune, Journatic co-founder and CEO Brian Timpone said altered bylines were commonly used for its Blockshopper.com real estate stories, a separate enterprise from its newspaper content service. Timpone said some of its newspaper clients, including TribLocal, had asked to republish those stories on their hyperlocal sites, which Journatic allowed. But the company neglected to remove the altered bylines.