Access: Birmingham
Times are tough for newspaper publishers, who are trying to sell their relevance to subscribers and potential advertisers. The temptation to drop standards is ratcheting up, and once standards are lower it’s hard to recover that blow to reputation.
Just a year ago, the Washington Post shelved an idea publisher Katharine Weymouth had floated – whereby you could essentially buy your way into a party and get access to key friends of hers in the Obama Administration, and Congress, and maybe even some of the editorial staff. All for the low, low price of $25,000 to $250,000.
If this recent email solicitation from the Birmingham Business Journal seems like three-or-four orders of magnitude less dangerous, it’s because – by definition – it is exactly three or four orders of magnitude removed!
You can click to enlarge the image, but here’s the transcript:
Biz Mix
- Mix
- Mingle
- Make business contact
The Wine Loft and the Birmingham Business Journal presents [sic] Biz Mix, an “easy-to-meet-people” networking opportunity.
Meet the publisher. Meet the editor. Meet new business prospects… meet everyone you need to know. Be sure to bring your business cards!
Date: Tuesday, August 24
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $25 (includes light hors d’oeuvres & 2 drinks)
Now, I can understand wanting to increase visibility and profile through hosting a meet-and-greet. That happens all the time.
I can also understand why a player in a shrinking and cash-strapped industry would want to find outside sponsorship for such an event.
I can even see where asking $25 to cover the cost of the finger foods and the drinks might make sense.
But to throw in access to the publisher and editor?
I am reminded of the classic quote, often attributed to either Winston Churchill or George Bernard Shaw, that “we’ve already established what you are; we’re merely haggling for price.”
(I wouldn’t worry about any ethical breaches just yet. The ad asks you to CLICK HERE to register, but there was no embedded hyperlink…)
Before they tore down their old building, I thought the “News” had an opportunity to open up a big cafeteria/coffee house where reporters would be encouraged (by discounts, Wi-Fi, etc) to hang out at big round tables chatting with people who came in. The tables would, of course, be furnished with fresh newspapers. And the cost of “access” would be no more than $1.50 for a cup of coffee.
I thought it would be nice to develop an area as a museum exhibit with items from the paper’s archives and accounts of significant issues that the paper covered. Maybe add a gift shop for logo merchandise and books by people associated with the paper. Could have been a neat little attraction.
But I guess it makes a neat little parking lot, too, what with the brick piers and the little trees.
I’d like to add that the employees of the News get the honor of paying to park in this “neat little parking lot, too, what with the brick piers and the little trees”. Price varies according to time of day/night and whether the employee is represented or not.
Aw, hell, apparently I’m not charging enough for people to meet me. Gotta fix that.
(Full disclosure: I have written for the Birmingham Business Journal several times, sometimes for money.)
Problem No. 1: It looks bad, even though I don’t think the intention was charging the public for access to the publisher and the editor. But even the appearance of conflict of interest is a big no-no. Funny how to the copywriter it seemed like a great value-add, but should have set off warning bells the moment it crossed the publisher’s desk (it did cross the publisher’s desk, right?).
Problem No. 2: I like the editor, but alas, he is a lame duck. Perhaps a discount is in order?
The only solutions I can think of …
* Leave the publisher and the editor out of such promotions for paid events.
* Have regular forums — online and offline — where readers and the public can interact with the staff, free of charge. Even the BBJ’s sister company the Birmingham News has taken baby steps in that direction.
Thanks Wade…
Funny, because the probable causes you raised (copy not being vetted by the publisher) were the same proffered by the Post when it was facing the heat.
Let me play devil’s advocate. If you buy an advertisement in a newspaper, you have access to the publisher. Through the publisher, you also have access to the editor. That’s always been true. I don’t know a single newspaper where the wall is so high the editor and publisher don’t talk. So what’s the problem here? The perception that the newspaper is charging for access to those two people? It already does. If we’re so concerned about perception, then stop accepting advertisement.
The perception is there. It’s what you do when people have access to you that matters.
If you buy an ad in the newspaper, you’re getting something of value other than the access.
This situation is blatantly about the access — unless I missed the part where the Wine Loft is offering a daily “Finger Foods and Two Drinks” meal deal.
I agree with Wade that this probably smells worse than it really is, but it does make you wonder how something like this leaves the building without someone catching a whiff.