In reply to Pippin Williamson.

Pippin's argument has perfect merit. It casts a valuable perspective from a business owner point of view. Especially the hazards of having your business future dependent on your partners. And it's also important that quality news providers don't create additional duress on companies by adding to a rumour mill. And maybe that is the case here, I don't really know. It is also good to see other business owners defending others. However...

The Tavern should report in the best interest of the ecosystem and that is what it does. Ninety-nine procent of the time that involves positive coverage for businesses. It can be regarded as a tad hypocritical that Jeff and co get criticized by business owners and to a certain degree, lectured on how to write their pieces, the moment a piece of coverage isn't flattering.

In my view, the reporting here was fair enough and reflective of customer sentiment and interests. It was doing its job. And I don't want coverage the tavern to be a puppet for companies, which btw is not an uncommon criticism from some folk.

Almost every post here is giving some company coverage, mostly positive coverage. When there is positive coverage, no business owner is coming out complaining about how biased it might appear when it benefits them. WPTavern also has a very good track record on following up on stories when there are new developments, giving business a chance to react (for example, when a company does a good job of dealing with a security breach).

I don't want to see people messing with the team's instincts for reporting. Not when they are doing a great job across the board and serving the community first and foremost.

Having an outlet that reports the good and the bad is healthy for the ecosystem. It raises accountability for companies and in turn raises the standards of conduct industry wide. If your company is sucking at communication, it is a business reality that it can come with negative consequences.

So while, strictly speaking, in a legal sense customers are not entitled to knowing the internal matters of a company, they are stakeholders in a sense, they have skin in the game. A company that is running well makes sure there customers are in good hands at all times. When they don't feel that way, expect consequences.

The little negative coverage here for businesses can be avoided by simply doing a good job communicating. If there is something that the Tavern should be commended for is promoting that very idea: businesses, please communicate well.

Let's not tell Jeff how to do his role, nitpick on words he chose, or how to report, or what the proper way to present a piece is. I think we owe him that.