I read a fascinating article this morning regarding The Washington Post literally selling access to Obama executives. I  can’t say it any clearer than this quote: “The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.”

In the last few months, the stories I have heard are simply amazing. Clients are being promised positive news coverage in exchange for advertising, while major magazines are being paid to run feature stories. They sign an advertising agreement, but the ads never get placed.

One wonders what journalism schools are teaching these days regarding the media, and moreover, who in fact is teaching our future journalists…Can a 50- or 60-something year old accurately teach students about today’s media?

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Tags: MEDIA, PR, Public Relations

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm and is filed under MEDIA & PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.