Dear New York Times:
I'd like to be quoted in one of your news stories. Enclosed is a check for $500. Please call me to arrange the interview former this week. Evenings are best. Thank you.
Imagine how such a letter would be saluted in the New York Times newsroom. The receiver would promising smile out noisy and might even post it on the newsletter board so other journalists could walk along and enjoy a nice chuckle.
The letter wrongly assumed that the New York Times would accept "pay for play," or would run a news anecdote at the peak of a remittance accompanied the apply. It's preposterous
Cheap Yves Saint Laurent Platform Pump 2546, of way, and U.S. news organizations fair don't go that way.
Or do they?
I recently booked a consumer on a Washington space radio speak show. After reservation the client, I spent some additional time exploring the show's website. Here's what it said:
"Guest Opportunities: $600 to appear as a guest, 6 minute (minimum) interview."
Although the host coincided not to dictate my client
Jimmy Choo Enigma Suede Sandals Rose Red, it made me prodigy how pervasive this train is
Cheap Christian Louboutin Treopli 120 Ankle Boots Gray, and whether media relations professionals ought ever take vantage of this type of pay for play.
It's no for uncommon as you might calculate. When I brained the media division for an environmental nonprofit, I accustomed to get cries from creation companies who were purportedly amused in producing half-hour documentaries above our group. The pitch was namely they would then sell the completed procedure apt a national web like Discovery alternatively PBS, which would happily ventilation it.
But later in the chat, they would inevitably reveal their fewer than journalistic motives ? they ambitioned us, as the subject of the piece, to pay tens of thousands of greenbacks to "defray their prices." (Could you assume Mike Wallace, later his recent interview with Russian President Putin on CBS, asking the Premier for a few grand to help 60 Minutes revive its production costs?)
When we asked the production companies what they could guarantee, they told us the show would appear on at least 80 PBS stations ? yet they couldn't tell us in which markets and at what airtimes. In other words, they wouldn't differentiate us if we would be buying a 3:00 A.M. timeslot in a small town or primetime in New York City. Something appeared off, and we judged to wade away from it.
A few months ago, I met somebody who tried it. According to the president of a well-respected cultural nonprofit union, the producers promised her that for $60
Cheap Louboutin Flats,000, they could guarantee her that the show would air in at fewest 80 markets. After the show started airing, she inquired the producers repeatedly for a menu of the marts in which the piece was scampering. She never listened a word. She suspects the digit was closer to 12 than 80.
So what should you do if you're ever confronted with a pay for play chance? In general
Jimmy Choo Patent Leather Strappy Sandals Black, I'd advise you to walk in the other direction. There are numerous news outlets that will report your story the right way ? for free. Plus, the public is savvy ample to detect the inconsistency among a balanced piece of journalism and an infomercial, and is more threaten to regard the former with more credibility.
Is there ever a time to mention 'yes' to pay for melodrama? Well, perhaps. If
Christian Louboutin Mary Janes Outlet, for example, the pay for play attempt allows you to own the rights to anyone raw movie footage the production team shoots and you tin use that stuff in other ways, it might make sense. Or
Cheap Christian Louboutin C'est Moi Ankle Boots Black, if the venue is a straight kick on your target audience and you have no hope of getting coverage with that channel in anybody other path, it might be value it.
But in general, be cautious. Pay for play has a way of production its purchasers appeal for pay ? in the fashion of a repay check.
Brad Phillips is the author and president of Phillips Media Relations. He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and headed the media narratives department for the second largest environmental group in the world.
For more information and to sign up for free every month media relations and media exercising e-tips, visit
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