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Best of Louisville awards

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Roger A. Baylor

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Re: Best of Louisville awards

by Roger A. Baylor » Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:46 pm

I seem to recall it being acrimoniously mutual.
Roger A. Baylor
Beer Director at Pints&union (New Albany)
Digital Editor at Food & Dining Magazine
New Albany, Indiana
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Margie L

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Re: Best of Louisville awards

by Margie L » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:21 am

Most "Best Of" are nothing but high-priced marketing gimmicks. "Best Place to Work" is bought and paid for. Same with the special publications touting the "Best" attorneys and physicians. Even if "real" voting is used, you usually have to pay to be on the voting list.
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Sarah Kelley

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Re: Best of Louisville awards

by Sarah Kelley » Tue Nov 06, 2012 3:21 pm

Sorry I'm a little late to the game on this, but as editor of LEO I feel compelled to respond and dispute some of the inaccuracies recently relayed in this thread:

1) The suggestion that Village Anchor (or Blind Pig the year before) in any way compensated LEO through ad buys in exchange for winning is ludicrous, insulting, and wrong. Regardless of whether one likes LEO, I can assure you that sales has zero say over editorial content.
2) One of the commenters, Carla — a former employee of LEO (whom is missed!) — defends LEO by saying editorial is in no way involved in Readers' Choice. That is not the case. Upon becoming editor in 2010, I completely took over the counting of votes to eliminate the appearance of impropriety (i.e., sales folks rigging the winners).
3) Is Readers' Choice a money-making venture? Of course. It is one of our most profitable issues of the year. And though it is not my favorite issue from an editorial standpoint, making money is crucial to keeping this ship afloat, and many readers seem to really enjoy the issue.
4) I knew people would grumble that one restaurant won so many awards, but I was not going to alter the results to make it look better.
5) The day sales starts to dictate editorial content ("do this" or "don't do this") is the day I walk away .... period.

Take it or leave it, that's the truth.

Best,

Sarah
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Deb Hall

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Re: Best of Louisville awards

by Deb Hall » Tue Nov 06, 2012 4:03 pm

Sarah,

Thanks for entering the fray with such a positive response. ( and welcome to the Forum!)

As the original poster, I wanted to clarify my statements. I never suggested in writing or even thought that LEO had done anything unethical in anyway. I have always greatly appreciated our alternative weekly- I'm a big fan. My concern however is that it far too easy for the voting on these contests to be "biased" by certain establishments strongly encouraging their patrons to vote for them or by ( worst case) restaurants voting for themselves. On-line voting has only intensified this. I don't believe either is against the rules ( and couldn't be enforced anyway). My point was only that the resulting standings are not really indicative of what's actually " Best" in Louisville- it's popularity contest. And never claims to be anything else.

Deb
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Carla G

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Re: Best of Louisville awards

by Carla G » Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:43 am

Well hello again Ms. Sarah! Welcome to the forum. And I thank you as well for clearing up any misconceptions regarding the editorial dept. and the Best of Louisville awards. (Item number 2 in your response) I want to apologize for my outdated information. I only wanted to illustrate the crevasse between sales and editorial . (I remember even being scolded by one of the other LEO editors for even asking that Robyn do a review on a specific restaurant. And rightly so.) Still, I think it's a pity and a waste of skill to have the Editor do something as menial as count thousands of votes. I would much prefer your work and efforts directed to more coverage of strip mining in Kentucky, unsupervised teen behavior in theaters , Louisville's homeless or some other similar noteworthy stuff that LEO has given the community. Maybe your new publisher will see that your noteworthy skills are put to better use. We would all benefit from it!
"She did not so much cook as assassinate food." - Storm Jameson
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