When the attack comes

Some time back, one of the newspapers I publish came under attack from an "online news source" that billed itself as a "local online television station." The web site was, in my view, really much more of an opinion-oriented site that consistently made accusations against various local entities, often with little or no backing.

The site appears to be closed now, but some of their repeated accusations and actions against the paper included:

• The paper was exchanging positive stories for receiving the legal notice business from one city government.
• The paper was exchanging positive stories for receiving the legal notices from the county government.
• This was a big one to me. The paper is the reason that women who are the victims of sexual assault are afraid to come forward.
• During the coverage of an alleged sexual impropriety on the part of an elected official, the site constantly referred to us as "male dominated," even though the competitor is owned by a man, and at our paper 50 percent of our staff, including 2 of 4 department heads, are women.
• The site frequently ran mock-ups of our front page with the word "manure" on it instead of our actual name.
• Our graphics were constantly referred to as "dopey" and our managing editor frequently referred to as a "fool."
• And you can imagine the beating we took when the owners of our company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

There is much more but I hope you get the point. At no point did this news source obtain any information from us about any of their allegations - no quotes, no comments, no supporting materials, etc.

What would you have done if your client faced something similar to this?

I can tell you that our actions centered around the high road and simply doing better. Here are some things we made sure were happening:

• We made absolutely certain that we posted more stories and photos faster than the other paper.
• Near the end, we were posting more video than the "online television station."
• We clearly, in print and online, posted our web traffic and statistics, something our competitor did not seem to want to do.'
• We heavily promoted the many things you get from our paper and web site than nobody else offers.
• I started a blog about the paper - its plans, accomplishments and challenges - increasing transparency.
• We heavily leveraged our print product - which has about 70 percent market penetration - to further promote our web site.

Here is what we did not do:

• At no point did we ever mention the other site in our stories. There was one photo, published on the web only, but that was only after they vacated their building. However, it was not "of them." Rather it was a photo of the county courthouse on election day - reflected in their front door.
• We did not publicly bash them, attack them or even acknowledge them. When asked directly about them, our stock response was "They do what they do, we do what we do."

Here is the damage we suffered:

• We continued with our net increase in paid print subscribers.
• We increased web traffic, including unique visitors and page views.
• We lost not one single advertiser in print or online.

Make no mistake, it was sometimes not an easy period. Both staff and myself were often angered and sometimes demoralized by what we saw on their web site.

But what is important is to understand how you will react when your client calls screaming (and they will scream) about a similar attack.

For all its great benefits, the Internet is a place where people have what I call electronic courage. They will say anything about anyone, be it on a web site, in a blog or on sites such as Topix and other discussion boards. And sometimes they present no proof.

Some pertinent points to consider are:

• How will you deal with a client who is hurt, angry or demoralized by such comments?
• How will you evaluate the actual damage being done to your client by these accusations?
• Will you directly address the accuser? If so, will this just inflame them further?
• Will you counter the accusations, or should you just let them slide and ignore them?
• What tools will you use to counter the attack? Blogs? Traditional media? Facebook?
• Where is the line to consider legal action?

I'm sure there are other considerations.