On Coffee WritingFebruary 28th, 2014Let’s be clear. I know all about lazy journalism. As a journalist for more than a decade, as well as a book author and publisher, I have been on both sides of lazy journalism many, many times. Someone needs a quote from me this afternoon because they kinda spaced on their deadline? Sure, I understand. I have sent those last-minute emails, too. I understand it can be hard some days to shove the cat off the couch and get down to brass tacks, meet your deadlines, and even, in some cases, do a good job on your researching and reporting. I have empathy. I do.That said, I work extremely hard for very little pay in an industry—cultural journalism—that’s surviving on diminishing returns. A lot of people get paid poorly, and a lot of people—their choice, though it devalues the work of all of us—are willing to write for free. I do a good job delivering my own expertise on coffee (or tea, or whatever else I’m writing about) in articulate and informed articles that are, hopefully, accessible to a broad audience. I do this because I’m good at it and it’s an honorable job. Most of the time it even makes me happy. But you know what doesn’t make me happy? Lazy journalists who take others’ hard work.This Tuesday, Zagat, a one-time mom-and-pop company owned by Google.com since 2011, published a guide entitled “8 Hottest Coffee Shops in NYC“. Well that sounds great—I love coffee shops in NYC! The article made the rounds of my friends’ social media accounts and I was happy to see some of these great shops get a little more recognition.And then I read the words, and some of them were mine.An editor for Zagat named Kelly Dobkin has put her name at the top of this piece. Kelly Dobkin seems to live here in New York, and she also seems to pay frequent visits to a website that I write for, Sprudge.com, in her quest for primary sources for research and inspiration. That’s no problem. Except when it is. (Apparently, this isn’t the first time even this month that Dobkin’s been called out for cribbing from others.)Dobkin included several cafes on her “8 Hottest” list that I have written about on Sprudge in the last few months. Here are some excerpts from my articles, compared with Dobkin’s capsule reviews on the Zagat site:Budin Coffee (from my article on Sprudge.com, 17 Feb 2014)Liz Clayton:“The project of partners Elliot Rayman (a veteran of both Stumptown Coffee Roasters and bustling local Variety Coffee), Crystal Pei and Rut Hermannsdóttir, Budin’s realized dream, earlier profiled in these pages, is a modern cafe with a subtitle: “Coffee Bar. Design Goods. Nordic.” And if ever Greenpoint was ready for a high-end lifestyle-and-coffee shop…hopefully that time is now.”Kelly Dobkin:“Why it’s hot: This Scandinavian coffee-bar-meets-lifestyle-shop in Greenpoint recently opened from Elliot Rayman