Ninety thousand views turned this from bad manners into economic harm. Each one was an opportunity for the work to lead back to you and Beyond; instead, it built someone else’s authority. Credit is not decorative here. It is how reputation, clients, and income find the people who did the work. I’m glad you fought it and won.
“Bad manners into economic harm” - I LOVE this phrasing. Thank you for the input and seeing the harm. You’re exactly right.
I think a lot of people don’t see a problem with it, which is why it’s so prolific. I campaigned a lot on Instagram, and I actually got a DM from one woman who told me that getting copied wasn’t so bad, because she’d found me via my comment on the post (where I’d said, please don’t take our ideas and pass them off as your own)… She didn’t then follow me though, so was just passing through, so the rationale doesn’t really stack up. But unfortunately, I do think most people are a bit laissez faire about it.
That DM almost proves the opposite of what she intended. She found you only because you had to publicly fight to reconnect the work to your name, and even then the attention did not translate into ongoing support. The copying created reach for someone else and labor for you. Calling that “exposure” asks the person harmed to be grateful for cleaning up the mess.
You speak my language, Joe!!! I almost replied to her saying this, but as you say, it’s extra labour. Trying to further explain to another adult exactly why something is wrong almost felt patronising or parent-like. I appreciate so much strategy work is behind the scenes and people don’t quite understand the workflow, but theft is theft, and I’d hope that everyone (no matter their age) could grasp that.
It feels to me like people’s attention spans are so short, we are increasingly becoming sensitised only to the immediate moment—bigger-picture thinking or context is falling by the wayside. It’s worrying!
Well done for calling this out Grace. The amount of work that we put into reporting on stories that are then just diluted into someone else’s reel or carousel… depressing. Also surely v naive on his part to think that your algorithm wouldn’t immediately show you a reel that had lifted your own story lol.
This!!! People don’t quite seem to grasp all the invisible labour in reporting. It’s not only about the words that end up on the page — it’s everything that was consciously removed from that research and those interviews. It’s that synthesis of relevance which is what makes stories so powerful and that’s the skill of the writer. People take everything at face value.
A similar thing happened on substack with my running brands at fashion week piece, from Salty in Jan. People co-opted my knowledge, context, access and over a decade of experience in the field as if it was all publicly available information without citation. People forget the most relevant thing within a piece of writing is the lens and filter of the person writing it.
Exactly - and we would have benefitted from his virality, so everyone would have won! He did eventually credit us before we got it taken down but it was already too late by that point.
I will never forget seeing red when a person I had taken a coffee with to help her start freelance writing plagiarized a piece I wrote with an EXACT sentence verbatim. I ended up emailing the editor who commissioned her because at some point, we have the stand up for ourselves.
I'm so glad you're standing up for yourself. It gives us all the courage to do so.
Also proud of you! This is a crazy story—as if, having generously given mentorship—you wouldn’t be following this person’s career. It’s important you emailed the editor, as publications need to know who they are working with; that they are legally accountable for stories they publish.
When I first started working at the FT, if another title had reported on a story that was even mildly similar, we had to cite the story and hyperlink the piece. That practice is long dead in journalism and I don’t quite understand why.
I’ve seen stories I’ve written years ago replicated by competitor titles as recently as this year. There are so many examples: my cotton tote bag story (NY Times), my socks piece for WSJ, my Trader Joe’s tote bag piece for WSJ, my best hotel gyms story for FT, my Iceland expedition for FT. Men who wear shorts in winter. No title ever credits the original title any more.
In 2020, I wrote about Andy Burnham (the new British PM), first for Vogue and then for the FT linked to his “working class” fashion sense… those stories abounded since he came to Downing Street. It’s a hard life being that far ahead, lol!!!
Thieves everywhere these days. Courageous post Grace except for your exemplary manners. These really are name and shame moments but mob justice won't fix this either.
it's such an intractable problem. there's too many incentives for people to violate etiquette/ethics/publishing norms. the talking head economy is largely built on the uncredited work of journalists and it's part of what's breaking the news business model!
Ninety thousand views turned this from bad manners into economic harm. Each one was an opportunity for the work to lead back to you and Beyond; instead, it built someone else’s authority. Credit is not decorative here. It is how reputation, clients, and income find the people who did the work. I’m glad you fought it and won.
“Bad manners into economic harm” - I LOVE this phrasing. Thank you for the input and seeing the harm. You’re exactly right.
I think a lot of people don’t see a problem with it, which is why it’s so prolific. I campaigned a lot on Instagram, and I actually got a DM from one woman who told me that getting copied wasn’t so bad, because she’d found me via my comment on the post (where I’d said, please don’t take our ideas and pass them off as your own)… She didn’t then follow me though, so was just passing through, so the rationale doesn’t really stack up. But unfortunately, I do think most people are a bit laissez faire about it.
That DM almost proves the opposite of what she intended. She found you only because you had to publicly fight to reconnect the work to your name, and even then the attention did not translate into ongoing support. The copying created reach for someone else and labor for you. Calling that “exposure” asks the person harmed to be grateful for cleaning up the mess.
You speak my language, Joe!!! I almost replied to her saying this, but as you say, it’s extra labour. Trying to further explain to another adult exactly why something is wrong almost felt patronising or parent-like. I appreciate so much strategy work is behind the scenes and people don’t quite understand the workflow, but theft is theft, and I’d hope that everyone (no matter their age) could grasp that.
It feels to me like people’s attention spans are so short, we are increasingly becoming sensitised only to the immediate moment—bigger-picture thinking or context is falling by the wayside. It’s worrying!
Such smart phrasing Joe ⚡️
Well done for calling this out Grace. The amount of work that we put into reporting on stories that are then just diluted into someone else’s reel or carousel… depressing. Also surely v naive on his part to think that your algorithm wouldn’t immediately show you a reel that had lifted your own story lol.
This!!! People don’t quite seem to grasp all the invisible labour in reporting. It’s not only about the words that end up on the page — it’s everything that was consciously removed from that research and those interviews. It’s that synthesis of relevance which is what makes stories so powerful and that’s the skill of the writer. People take everything at face value.
A similar thing happened on substack with my running brands at fashion week piece, from Salty in Jan. People co-opted my knowledge, context, access and over a decade of experience in the field as if it was all publicly available information without citation. People forget the most relevant thing within a piece of writing is the lens and filter of the person writing it.
“People forget the most relevant thing within a piece of writing is the lens and filter of the person writing it.” 💯💯💯
“People forget the most relevant thing within a piece of writing is the lens and filter of the person writing it.” 💯💯💯
Thanks for calling this out Grace, so infuriating. In most cases, it would cost whoever it is absolutely nothing to credit your work.
Exactly - and we would have benefitted from his virality, so everyone would have won! He did eventually credit us before we got it taken down but it was already too late by that point.
I will never forget seeing red when a person I had taken a coffee with to help her start freelance writing plagiarized a piece I wrote with an EXACT sentence verbatim. I ended up emailing the editor who commissioned her because at some point, we have the stand up for ourselves.
I'm so glad you're standing up for yourself. It gives us all the courage to do so.
Also proud of you! This is a crazy story—as if, having generously given mentorship—you wouldn’t be following this person’s career. It’s important you emailed the editor, as publications need to know who they are working with; that they are legally accountable for stories they publish.
When I first started working at the FT, if another title had reported on a story that was even mildly similar, we had to cite the story and hyperlink the piece. That practice is long dead in journalism and I don’t quite understand why.
I’ve seen stories I’ve written years ago replicated by competitor titles as recently as this year. There are so many examples: my cotton tote bag story (NY Times), my socks piece for WSJ, my Trader Joe’s tote bag piece for WSJ, my best hotel gyms story for FT, my Iceland expedition for FT. Men who wear shorts in winter. No title ever credits the original title any more.
In 2020, I wrote about Andy Burnham (the new British PM), first for Vogue and then for the FT linked to his “working class” fashion sense… those stories abounded since he came to Downing Street. It’s a hard life being that far ahead, lol!!!
PROUD OF YOU
THANK YOU 💙💙💙
Thieves everywhere these days. Courageous post Grace except for your exemplary manners. These really are name and shame moments but mob justice won't fix this either.
This is so gross. Thanks for calling it out
Resharing for visibility and so sorry this has happened to you. We need to get more eyes on this type of shoddy behaviour.
Thank you so much for your support!
Apparently it’s happening to all of us!!
Unfortunately!!!
Louder for the people in the back!!!
I saw Nicola post about it on insta! Didn’t realise it was your story. Infuriating
I’m so sorry this happened to you and it was copied so literally! Glad you won but wooow
Thank you so much for the support! 💙
it's such an intractable problem. there's too many incentives for people to violate etiquette/ethics/publishing norms. the talking head economy is largely built on the uncredited work of journalists and it's part of what's breaking the news business model!