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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, September 10, 2009

CBKB: Hartford Courant ’re-evaluating’ plan to have Auriemma’s daughter cover team


Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. — The Hartford Courant says it is re-evaluating its plan to have Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma’s daughter write a blog about the team.

The newspaper’s sports editor, Jeff Otterbein, says he hired Alysa Auriemma to give an insider’s viewpoint about her father and the team on monthly blog postings during the upcoming basketball season. Otterbein says the younger Auriemma would be paid $125 per article.
The arrangement has been criticized by a media ethics expert and journalists, who call Auriemma’s role a conflict of interest for the state’s largest daily newspaper.
Otterbein says he at first considered the blog “a slice of something they could not get elsewhere.” He says the newspaper is reconsidering the relationship and is asking readers for their opinions.