In The 21st Century, ‘Byline Doesn’t Take Credit For The Work’

Gawker has found something terrifically interesting about Men’s Health editor Dave Zinczenko: apparently he is “recycling” his writers’ old Men’s Health stories for his “Eat This, Not That” column for Yahoo! Health.

And putting his own byline on them.

“For instance,” writes Gawker’s Maureen O’Connor, “check out Zinczenko’s recent “15 Worst Health and Diet Myths.” Myths 1 – 5 are ripped verbatim from Men’s Health writer Alan Aragon’s “The Truth Behind 5 Food Myths.” Zinczenko didn’t even bother changing the order of the myths.”

Gawker then found seven bylined articles that Zinczenko borrowed and ten without original bylines that also appeared in his column.

A Rodale spokesperson contacted Gawker later in the day after the first article appeared crying foul, explaining:

Rodale owns all rights to the majority of the content that appears in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Eat This, Not That! and other branded products. Our editors use that content to promote Rodale and its various properties across all media. As the editor for the Men’s Health brand, it’s Dave’s job to promote the magazine and its extensions. The byline doesn’t take credit for the work, but serves as an overarching tag used in conjunction with the logo to indicate that the material has been written, assigned or edited by the brand (i.e. Dave and his team) at some point. That is why the Men’s Health logo appears on this particular blog.

Now before anyone gets their torches and pitchforks ready, it should be noted that employees of a company often produce all their work “for hire,” meaning that staffers don’t own their own work and it’s completely legal for the company to reuse it with a different byline on it. If a freelancer signs a similar “work for hire” contract, same goes for the freelancers.

But while it may be completely legal for Rodale to do what it’s done, does that make it right?

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.