PR is not pay to play!

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of speaking with a member of the media who, let’s just say, lacked some degree of journalistic integrity.

Now, I’m fairly forgiving of unreturned phone calls, short fuses and blunt refusals, but informing me that I must be an advertiser to be included in EDITORIAL content is a complete violation of the standards of journalism that respectable publications work so hard to maintain.

To be specific, my job, as a public relations professional, is to call my friends at the media and share gems that may/may not be newsworthy (to be determined by the publication.)

This fellow, who happens to be the editor-in-chief of a community paper, responded to me as follows:

Me: “Hi, [introduction], and I was wondering if you’d be interested in learning about [company/info] that’s located within your readership that’s doing [company features/new program.]”
Editor: “Oh, you mean advertising?”
Me: “No…I’m seeing if you were interested in doing a feature on [company/more specific info.]”
Editor: “You mean free advertising?”
Me: “No…I’m in Public Relations…and at the very least, I’d be happy to send you additional information about this company to keep in mind as expert resources for your future articles about [topics.]”
Editor: “No. We have advertisers for that.”

I’m still in shock that someone in such a high-ranking position of a publication would be so blatantly unethical.
But hey…I’ll just take my ideas elsewhere, and recommend everyone else does the same. They obviously don’t need the news.