The Ventura County Star has canceled two business-related columns written by Jim Woodard because of multiple instances of plagiarism.

This is the second incident of plagiarism by freelance writers appearing in The Star this year. Both cases resulted in immediate termination of the contract with the writers.

Woodard, in a meeting with editors, said any instances of plagiarism discovered in his column were unintentional and the result of using material that he thought was available for his reuse.

Woodard wrote two columns for The Star, a profile of new businesses in Ventura County that appeared in the Sunday Business section, and a real estate column that appeared in the Sunday Star Homes section. It was in the real estate column that all instances of plagiarism were found.

"We have zero tolerance for plagiarism," Star Managing Editor John Moore said. "Our contract with our freelance writers includes a journalistic integrity clause that requires them to write their pieces in accordance with the law and generally accepted journalistic practices.' "

The plagiarism came to light after a communications director for a homebuilder in the area notified The Star that quotes from an executive with the company appeared in Woodard's column, but that the executive never spoke to Woodard. The company said the information was from an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

A search by The Star found that the information, which appeared in the March 2 real estate column by Woodard, was from a Feb. 5 story in the Wall Street Journal by Dawn Wotapka.

A check of Woodard real estate columns over the past six months found three other instances of plagiarism.

In a Feb. 10 column, a quotation was taken from a Jan. 26 column by Kenneth Harney of the Washington Post Writers Group. In a Dec. 16 Woodard column, parts of three paragraphs were taken from a Nov. 11 New York Times story by Vivian Marino. And in a Nov. 4 Woodard column, most of four paragraphs were taken directly from an Oct. 11 article by Ben Casselman of the Wall Street Journal.

"Our readers expect us to provide complete attribution when we use material from another source," Moore said. "This did not meet that standard and is a breach of our ethics."

Moore also said The Star will make sure that all of its outside writing contractors are aware of the newspaper's standards, policies and Code of Ethics. Copies of the ethics code are being sent to each freelance writer, and workshops will take place to review policies and procedures related to plagiarism and ethical issues.