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Washington Post finds the formula

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by PeteyPirate, Jul 2, 2009.

  1. VJ

    VJ Member

    What's the issue there if they aren't selling access to reporters and editors?

    That's what you pay for to attend conferences, to hear specific people talk and meet them.
     
  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The suspicion is that if the Post is selling "conference attendance" at that much a pop, something more is going down than meet-and-greets.
    The phrase "non-confrontational" seems to imply "they'll be listening to all bidders!"
     
  3. J-School Blue

    J-School Blue Member

    Just read this. I found it incredibly disturbing.

    I don't even know what to say, really. On my first read-through I'd hoped it was a hoax, but the Post isn't denying it.

    Not sure what else to say, really. Wow. Damn.
     
  4. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    Guys, guys, this is supposed to be non-confrontational!

    If you're looking for confrontational, on-the-record exchanges with reporters and editors, perhaps you should try another newspaper. The rates are much more reasonable, too.
     
  5. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Post says "eh, nevermind. You all had to make such a biiiiiiiiig deal over this." At least I'm sure that's what they're thinking.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201563.html
     
  6. J-School Blue

    J-School Blue Member

    That last line really brings it home.

     
  7. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    Katie Graham would put Katherine Weymouth's tit in a wringer about this.

    I'd like to see Woodward and Bernstein comment on this "access" fee.
     
  8. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I have to give the Post's editor the benefit of doubt that this memo was written without the newsroom's knowledge or his consent. Remember, when he was ME of The Wall Street Journal, he was one of the draftees of an agreement that specified editorial independence -- the managing editor's complete autonomy on news decisions -- as part of the paper's sale to Rupert Murdoch. This strikes me as the idea of someone outside the newsroom, someone who has no understanding of how a newsroom operates. Lots of screwy things get proposed, inside and outside a newsroom. I would not be concerned unless the policy were actually implemented, and clearly it never was.

    Two Post executives familiar with the planning, who declined to be identified discussing internal planning, said the fliers appear to be the product of overzealous marketing executives. The fliers were overseen by Charles Pelton, a Post executive hired this year as a conference organizer. He was not immediately available for comment.
     
  9. Ummm, as someone who knew K. Weymouth in college, I wouldn't have put it past her to do this sort of thing.

    It doesn't surprise me she got one little job at Newsday which somehow qualified her to be Publisher at her mother's shop. It also didn't surprise me that she got a divorce before taking that position -- don't want anyone to stand in the way of passing down The Washington Post Company (such as it will be in a few years) down to her heirs.

    But that's just me.
     
  10. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Frank, much of what you say rings true-that nobody in news knew about this in particular. BUT, somebody in senior management had to sign off on these "conferences" and I will do the Post the favor of assuming that somebody had to know WHY a ticket to these shindigs was worth 25 large.
    Whether the Post was pimping itself out or just running a hot-sheet motel for the lobbyists and public officials attending this affair is, to me, a distinction without a difference. Neither's right.
     
  11. Dave Kindred

    Dave Kindred Member

    Turns my stomach.
     
  12. OTD

    OTD Well-Known Member

    A page from the Kathryn Downing B-school textbook.
     
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