Corina’s Concerns Be lowly wise, think only what concerns thee and thy being.– John Milton, Paradise Lost

I travelled recently to a medium-seized Romanian town with a sleepy countenance hiding some amazing surprises: modest people of immodest wealth, chic (and tasty) restaurants with reasonable prices, an almost all-male press of decent, pleasant journalists.

In this really nice city, I also ran into the PR’s worst nightmare: the media outlet that asks for money to cover your news. I had thought it a fable, despite my PR fellows’ protests to the contrary.

It wasn’t.

I had just sent a reminder about the press conference I had scheduled for the next day, and the gala event following, to mark the opening of the city’s first multiplex cinema, a significant investment from both my company and the host mall, in a city where business is dwindling as a result of the recession, opening up to 60 part-time jobs for students. In addition, only 8 cities out of tens in Romania even had a multiplex, while at the same time, previously state-owned cinemas were in a state of transition that threatened their very identity as cinemas.

Get it? It was news, according to the criteria for newsworthiness drummed into my sophomore head by Profs. Christina Kotchemidova and Larry Gordon (the latter is a new Facebook friend, another testament to FB’s amazing prowess in reconnecting lost friends and acquaintances).

The day before the event, I got a phone call, and a youthful female voice told me: “Ms. Gonteanu, I am so-and-so from local TV station X. I have to tell you that if you want us to cover the fact that you are opening a facility in our city, it is considered advertising and you will have to pay us for it. It’s company policy.” I of course, declined, and politely explained to the lady that although a business is involved, the fact that an international company worth millions of euro is now investing a lot of money in a recession fraught town is news, and furthermore that our policy is never to pay for editorial coverage. We do pay for advertising, I explained, and put our budgets where our mouths are, but I personally have never paid for legitimate news, and am not about to start. We said our polite goodbyes, and that was it.

So why is this bothering me? Well, first of all it’s the dubious professional ethics, and second, it’s the quality of journalism arising from that. (I have been schooled to be a journalist, and have the utmost respect for the profession.)

I do not want to be a citizen watching a TV station that accepts (nay, even requests) money to put a news item in the bulletin. It’s tantamount to misinformation. And I do not want to be a citizen watching a TV station that shuns news that may be important, or relevant, because the source is not paying. Think of the great NGO stories that you would miss, for example.

I admit, there’s a thin line between genuine journalism and PR fluff when reporting about a company, and most journalists tread it carefully.

The point was however, I wasn’t asking the TV station to be positive about our new multiplex. I wasn’t even asking them to actually run a story. But I was, naively perhaps, expecting a reporter to be present, and then the producer could decide whether the story was worth airing or not, whether it was crossing that thin line, instead of a sales and marketing exec. a priori telling me that payment was required.

I had heard qualified people saying that Romanian media is far more advanced than other media in the region. I gloated, and agreed that in many respects they were. But perhaps not in all. And I think owners need to be warned that despite tough economic times, journalistic integrity should not be compromised, and every potential story should be approached as a potential story and not an opportunity to gain profit.

And just to clarify whether the stuff was news, let me check the list of newsworthiness criteria, as I always do when issuing a press release:

Timing. The multiplex was about to open (first customers were two days away) so the story was fresh.

Significance. It was a new facility accessible to all the 200,000+ inhabitants of the city (not to mention the county and surrounding cities. Even if seen through the eyes of the 11,000 movie lovers that had braved the dilapidated state-owned cinema in 2007 (latest stats) it was still a statistically relevant group (and percentage).

Proximity. Check. It was the local press, dude

Prominence. Well, the mall owner was a prominent (and previously newsworthy local businessman), and the ceremonial ribbon cutting featured the deputy mayor, a well known local figure.

Human interest. Not so much, by design, but we did get the surprise attendance of the city’s best known cinematographer, who called our presence the rebirth of local cinema, an unplanned emotional moment that many of the press present decided to incorporate.

So you see, it was news. And without being critical of the station (for which reason I am naming neither it, nor the town), I am saddened by their decision and their policy. I understand their reasoning. I understand that the almost ridiculous restraints placed by the National Council of the Audiovisual on company names have created some funny and some monstrous habits in the broadcast media.

But I just think that the press was not meant to be pay-per-news.

Posted under PRealities, Random opinion