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Topic: A travel writer's first press trip
| Author | Message |
| Seafarer | Posted – 7/22/2007 12:14:13 PM | show profile | email poster I just returned from my first press trip since I began freelancing. Since it's a perennial topic of interest, especially for travel writers, I wrote a guest blog post about it for a fellow travel writing blogger based in New Zealand. URL is http://writetotravel.blogspot.com/2007/07/press-trip-great-deal-or-big-hassle.html Thanks. ------ My Web site Family Travel blog NHRA drag racing on Fast Machines |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/22/2007 12:30:45 PM | show profile The entry never addresses the big issue: ethics. |
| abel tasman | Posted – 7/22/2007 1:34:01 PM | show profile Wow, I hope you never expect to be taken seriously as a travel writer after a post like that. You not only gloss over the ethics issues; you revel in the comp'd goodies, revealing how the trip has compromised your objectivity. Young travel writers, take note: this post is a great example of why you should not take press trips. |
| Seafarer | Posted – 7/22/2007 11:37:43 PM | show profile | email poster BBelinda,abel tasman.... The point of the post was to try to take the mystery out of press trips -- what one is like, how a writer is invited (at least in my situation) and general pros and cons. I did not particularly address the ethics issue because I've read numerous discussions about that already, but not a lot of nuts-and-bolts about what a trip is like and how one is invited to such a trip, for those who've never been on one. It's not that I don't recognize or have plenty of concerns about those issues. I also noted that I felt it was easier for me to be objective on this particular trip since I'd been to the area already numerous times on my own dime, and that it is certainly easier to be complimentary about a place when it is worthy of those good words. abel tasman, please refrain from personal attacks. My editors at national, regional and online pubs take me quite seriously, thanks. I did not "revel in comp'd goodies;" I acknowledged that they are very nice, which they are for any freelancer who watches his/her pennies and gets tired of ramen. Maybe this is some 800 lb gorilla that we aren't supposed to discuss, but if the press rooms and writer's conferences that I've attended are any indication, people like freebies, so I chose to recognize that reality. As I said in the post, I did and do wonder whether being the recipient of such freebies makes one lose objectivity, and I can't help but think that it does. Some editors are OK with comp'd travel, some are not, and others "just don't want to know," which I think is bogus. If my contract says "no comps," as most of mine do, I follow that requirement meticulously, but I've learned that others are not so meticulous. Ethics-wise, that's between them and their editors; I make sure that I keep my own nose clean. This trip gave me an opportunity to "see what the fuss was about" concerning press trips, so I tried to share some of what I've learned. I understand why pubs forbid comped travel, in fact I think they're right to do so. It would be good if they then follow through by ethically paying a decent amount to writers for the work that we do and the hotel/food bills we incur while writing their articles. ------ My Web site Family Travel blog NHRA drag racing on Fast Machines |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/23/2007 9:37:35 AM | show profile Is there really mystery in how to get a press trip and what they're like? I'm surprised you think there is, as it's definitely not rocket science. It appeared to me, as to abel, that the blog entry -- I don't know a way to say it gently -- bears a sort of naivete because of what it omits. If it really was intended for beginners, they need to know that taking these freebies limits their markets and ultimately may cost them more money than it saves. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/23/2007 9:42:49 AM | show profile >>It would be good if they then follow through by ethically paying a decent amount to writers for the work that we do and the hotel/food bills we incur while writing their articles. << The presumption is that the writer's savvy enough to retool and resell. Take it from me, it's realistic to earn back at least five times as much as the trip cost simply by putting on your thinking cap. This, IMO, is the tutorial that beginning travel writers need -- not how-tos on taking free trips. |
| ejlyman | Posted – 7/23/2007 11:06:29 AM | show profile | email poster The lesson Stay away from press junkets! This proves the point better than I could make it myself. ------ Italy-based freelancer www.ericjlyman.com |
| Stanley_Milgram | Posted – 7/23/2007 11:59:40 AM | show profile Oh, tut-tut. I took a press trip once. I was invited by the canadian tourist office to spend a weekend in Vancouver and surrounding islands. I stayed in boutique hotels, ate in fancy restaurants, drank in swanky bars. They paid for everything: airfare, hotels, taxis, tips -- EVERYTHING. I told them I was interested in spas and basically received a massage a day! I made no promises and never actually wrote a word about any of it for anyone. Do I have any regrets? You got to be kidding. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 7/23/2007 4:50:18 PM | show profile I guess Stanley Milgram kind of shows the other ethical reasons you shouldn't take press junkets. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| Stanley_Milgram | Posted – 7/23/2007 10:41:04 PM | show profile yeah, one might enjoy oneself. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 7/24/2007 3:07:56 AM | show profile Yeah, I figured that would sail right over your sociopathic head. Next time don't use the name of a prominent psychologist known for his research into personal ethics, responsibility and behavior. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| Stanley_Milgram | Posted – 7/24/2007 7:39:21 AM | show profile ah yes, my name -- another heinous sin captured in the all-encompassing scope of your righteous indignation. as long as we're psychoanalysing via bbs, here's my take. most people know the difference between doing a whorish thing and being a whore. obviously, for reasons having to do with the way you view yourself (no doubt your parents share some blame for this) you don't. so perhaps in your case, it's best that you maintain your austere objectivity so that the readers of Cycle World or whatever rag you write for can benefit from your unvarnished look at the truth. |
| chucho | Posted – 7/24/2007 9:06:39 AM | show profile >> The point of the post was to try to take the mystery out of press trips -- what one is like, how a writer is invited (at least in my situation) and general pros and cons. << That's a good idea ONLY if you take the Gonzo Journalism approach. I wrote a similar piece after taking a junket to Indonesia with a group of Arab travel agents and airline reps and reflected on the debauchery (the fact that many of these men were married and going out for "massage pluses" and how the Indonesian consulate gave me an envelope filled with about $600 in rupias to have a "good time" -- I gave the money to a local charity in Jakarta) and utter lack of journalistic integrity in the puff piece I had to write to pay my dues and how un-fun the whole experience was because it's very scripted and you're only taken to the places that "play up" a destination and you have no ability to be objective in that environment (and don't even pretend that you can). IMO, any other approach to this subject is too self-important. It has to be written as a scathing critique in a Gonzo style; a little self-deprecation is good, too. That approach has value and integrity, IMO, everything else is "apologetica" for participating. |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 7/24/2007 9:26:08 AM | show profile I don?t know why everyone is getting so worked up about all this? People, people, people, it?s only travel writing! Do any of you really take travel magazines or newspaper travel sections seriously? I mean, come on. Much, if not most travel writing these days is crap, and it doesn?t matter whether it?s produce by some slacker on a press trip, or some newspaper staffer, who only covers places which are supported by the mega advertisers, that is the big airlines and the big chain hotels -- it's still just basically promotional material. Newspapers and glossy travel magazines are seen as simply a marketing arm of the travel industry. If you want to get worked up about something, get angry about the tragic fact that papers like the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and the WSJ helped the Bush Administration attack the wrong flipping country after 9/11, and even now they are not presenting the facts about how the Bushies plan to keep PERMANENT US bases in Iraq, even after we ?withdraw? next year -- the very thing that we did in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War, which lead to 9/11. People, it?s ?Travel writing.? The very essence of which is not information, but persuasion. Ketchup is not a vegetable, people. Cotton candy is not an important source of key vitamins and minerals. Those guys in white coats on TV selling drugs for your restless leg syndrome or your fat ass, are not doctors. Travel writing can be fun, it can entertaining, it can even be done well. But it?s not journalism. |
| chucho | Posted – 7/24/2007 9:36:16 AM | show profile >> and it doesn?t matter whether it?s produce by some slacker on a press trip, or some newspaper staffer, w <<< Sam, I can't speak for newspapers, but I have a couple of friends who are very hard working professional travel writers who work hard to give readers a realistic perspective of a place, and they consider it work and it is hard work to do it right. So, yes, it does matter. I do agree, however, that most of it is hack copywriting, which is what makes it so fun to expose and ridicule as such. And the same question could be tossed back at you: why the outrage over the outrage? (Not that it actually is "outrage" but you get my point.) |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 7/24/2007 10:46:11 AM | show profile travel writing press trips Churco, I'm sure that your friends are both hard working and honest, as I'm sure you probably are too. I never said that doing good travel writing was not hard work, or that it was easy to do. I just said that, the world being as it is, the system will never change, and so people should not take it seriously. Recently for example, a (staff) writer for the New York Times travel section wrote a glowing story about a posh hotel in Hong Kong which overlooked HK's Victoria Harbour. No where in the article did this guy ever mention that sadly, HK has probably the worse air pollution in Asia, if not the world, so the views from his $400 per night room would rarely if ever be clear. I emailed him to ask why he didn't this aspect about visiting Hk, especially as he had spent some many words talking about the big picture window in his room. He came back with a lame "yeah, I probably should have mentioned it." The real reason he didn't mention is it that it would have pissed off the huge luxury chain hotel he was staying at, and well, you can't have that can you? And if the NY Times can't bother to be straight with its readers, how rigorious do you really think all the other small newspapers in this country can afford to be? That's why I'm laughing at those people who are hammering that poor slacker who wrote about his fam trip. I'm not outraged at their outrage, I'm amused by it all. Again, I'm not reflecting on you or your friends efforts to make travel writing better, I'm merely laughing at people who get worked up at people who question "the morals" of some travel hack, when a New York Times reporter, probably earning close to $100,000 per year and on full expenses, does a blow job story on a big new hotel, which essentially gives readers a completely false sense of reality, so as not to offend the newspaper's mega advertisers. SW |
| chucho | Posted – 7/24/2007 11:04:57 AM | show profile I think we both agree that most travel writing is hack journalism, that's why I said I wasn't too sure about newspapers but that book travel writing is hard, serious work for the most part. I think they (newspapers and magazines) basically have a don't ask don't tell policy on publishing promotional advertorial type "travel pieces". Not all of it is like that , but a lot of t is about attracting advertising revenue to the publication. So, yeah, I think people who do it shouldn't be looked down on and sniffed at (as if a travel piece in Conde Nast Traveller magazine is ever something to be taken so seriously), but at the same time I don't think you can do an analysis on "Junket journalism" without being self-deprecating about it. There is no deep analysis needed in junket journalism -- it's "hackvertorial" writing. On the other hand, I think something really funny, informative and fun to read can be produced by exposing the phenomenon for what it is: a way for hotels and airlines and the publications that promote them to make money. (If I were an editor at a travel magazine, I'd assign this to a talented writer - to do a piece exposing junket journalism for what it is in a humorous manner.) And junket journalists? As far as I can tell they go on these things to eat food, root out the open bars, and find ways to avoid going to each and every event with all the minders that accompany these junkets. |
| abel tasman | Posted – 7/24/2007 11:55:42 AM | show profile NYT First of all, unless that reporter was Michelle Higgins, he or she was a freelancer. There's only one travel staff writer. Second of all, you're making a huge leap in saying that because he didn't mention the pollution, he was doing it to please the advertisers. But a freelancer won't know the advertisers; more likely he's trying to make the hotel look good b/c he thinks the paper won't use his piece if he gives a bad review. And for all pieces, including the Check In/Check Out section in which that likely ran, reporters go in anonymously, by policy. So know a little more what you're talking about before you make assumptions about a paper that at the very least makes a serious effort to maintain objectivity. And chucho--I'd like to read that piece. |
| chucho | Posted – 7/24/2007 1:14:35 PM | show profile Well, I do recall reading a Maureen Dowd travel piece last year that was clearly a junket (she kinda hints at it in the story) to Cancun. I'll post my junket Gonzo piece (with pics) online once I'm happy with it and nobody buys it. |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 7/24/2007 2:53:53 PM | show profile travel writing press trees Chucho's idea to do a story taking the mickey out of press trips and travel writing in general is an excellent idea, but no travel editor, on a newspaper or a magazine would ever touch it, simply because it is too close to the bone, and would open them to exposure for doing the same things themselves. (Though I did see a piece like this in E&P a few years ago). As for Mr. Abel, before you suggest that other people know a "little more what you're talking about" I'd suggest that you do your homework yourself. The NYT person who did the "what I don't see no air pollution here!" was indeed a staffer, and not a freelancer. Look it up, check it out yourself, before you assume. As for the writer not knowing which ads will run with which story, of course he doesn't have to know, because it's endemic in the system that travel coverage never goes neg. If a place is bad, or has serious problem you just drop the story, rather than say something bad in print. In the same geneal period that the Times travel piece on that HK hotel ran, stories in The Economist, the CSM, the FT and several AP reports all mentioned the appalling air pollution in HK. Note: none of these pubs are travel media. I'm not knocking travel media for what it does, only saying that you have to recognise the reality that it does what it does. It's promotion, not journalism. If the Times travel section was truly keen to make a "serious effort to maintain objectivity" in its reports on travel it would have written something like 'Hong Kong is a wonderful city, with superb hotels and restaurants and renown shopping, and a stunning harbor, but too bad about the dreadful air pollution...." The same paper did a piece on Shanghai recently, and again nary a word about that city's even worse air pollution was raised. If either of these reports were genunine journalism, this topic would appear in the first paragraphs, because this is the very first thing that visitors will see when they arrive and indeed, it is a regular topic of newspapers in those cities. It seems only to be invisible to travel writers and travel editors. I believe that Mr. Abel means well, but he is naive in the extreme. SW |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/24/2007 3:35:19 PM | show profile I believe we have the naive calling others naive. You really don't have a clue how newspaper travel sections work, do you, Sam? It shows. That's the beauty of stringing out self-promotional posts. |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 7/24/2007 6:19:27 PM | show profile travel writing press trips BB, Please, there's no need to be personally offended. I'm sure that you, too, work hard at your travel writing and try your best for the readers. (Or, perhaps, are you one of those people who "teaches" travel writing as well?) But the fact is, the key goal of today's newspaper travel sections is to survive, and to do that they need to generate revenue. And to do this, they need to support the key advertisers any way that they can. This is simply good business, nothing less, nothing more. If you think otherwise, you probably also believe that the US went into Iraq to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. (Never mind the fact that Iraq sitts on the second largest pool of oil on Earth). As for my not having a clue about how newspaper travel sections work, that's interesting, because I've (repeatedly)written lead features for six of the top eight papers, including those on both coasts; so perhaps, just maybe, I do have some inkling on how they actually work? I stopped writing for newspapers two years ago, because, sadly, it no longer made sense financially. If BB you truly think that the true aim of newspaper travel sections are for the good of the readers, please find me one or even two solid examples of a story on a well known (i.e. appears in all the travel ads) destination where the writer had a large chunk of non "happy" facts. Out of the hundred that are printed every year. Again, this is not something that reflects on you, or your aims or goals. It is a simple fact about newspaper travel publishing today. Sam |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/24/2007 11:40:34 PM | show profile The fact of the editorial side, Sam, is that it has no interaction or interface with the advertising side. The advertising department does not get a say in the specific subject or content of stories, and Editorial doesn't tell Advertising where to sell ads. Editorial and Advertising do not attend each others' meetings; do not have input into each others' operations; do not share staff; and do not plan sections together. How high is the wall? It's high enough that if an advertising rep appears on the editorial department's floor of the building, he or she is escorted away by a guard, with a stern warning, verbally and written, from the ad director never to bother Editorial again. A newspaper travel section's editorial calendar often coincides with the advertising calendar, but not because of collusion with or pandering to advertisers. From an editorial perspective, themed sections are a pain in the rear, not because anybody dictates the content -- nobody does so -- but because the editor has to come up with an entire section's-worth of, say, cruise stories that may or may not fit if Advertising can't sell the space. Note that a great deal of local ad space goes to small advertisers placing small 1x or 2x ads that are stacked; believe me, if one of these advertisers withdraws an ad, the section won't go under. Editorial gets its page dummies with numbers, not names of advertisers, corresponding to the ads. The numbers aren't code for advertisers' names; they're slugs for ads in the Advertising Department's computer system, which doesn't interface with Editorial's system. Editors first lay eyes on the dummies approximately the night before the section goes to press, when the pages are laid out. There's simply no time to pull off the conspiracies you suggest, Sam, even if Editorial were unethical enough to dredge up the desire. Things do work differently in magazines, however, where a whole different set of ethics operates. Yes, Sam, on staff I wrote travel for which the papers paid in full and that never involved press tours, and as a freelancer I still practice what I teach. It's not at all hard to stay clean. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 7/25/2007 12:04:21 AM | show profile >>As for my not having a clue about how newspaper travel sections work, that's interesting, because I've (repeatedly)written lead features for six of the top eight papers, including those on both coasts; so perhaps, just maybe, I do have some inkling on how they actually work? I stopped writing for newspapers two years ago, because, sadly, it no longer made sense financially.<< No, Sam, freelancing lead features, even repeatedly, doesn't reveal the inner workings of the big coastal newspapers to freelancers, the way being on staff does. By the way, if you'were trying to impress me with your credentials, it didn't work; I exceeded them years ago. You were wise to quit writing for newspapers. The ROI worked when it was possible to make multiple sales, but not anymore. |
| chucho | Posted – 7/25/2007 10:46:13 AM | show profile >> The ROI worked when it was possible to make multiple sales, but not anymore. << Who says it's no longer possible? Sam Quinones (great reporter, has done stuff for Frontline, many national papers, and has written two books on Mexico) not too long ago recommended multiple sales as almost necessary for freelancers' survival. One example he gave me was when he covered the immensely popular band Tigres del Norte. He would write a basic article, and then tweak it and pitch different versions of it to papers all long the band's tour route (mostly throughout the Southwest). Wow this discussion has caused me to work on my Junket story. I don't know if I have the chops to make it rapier's wit :^( but it's a fun challenge and will make a nice feature for my website. (As somebody appropriately pointed out, I think most publications wouldn't take a story like that because it exposes the conflict of interest inherent in (I argue) ANY story written as a product of freebies.* * The reason why I take an absolutist stance on this (as somebody who take taken these trips on numerous occasions) is because it has nothing to do with your ability to remain objective -- it has everything to do with your inability to break away from the itineraries of these type of trips. You don't even get a chance to compare the hotel they want you to see with the hotel that didn't invest in the package. (The way it works is often an airline and hotels offer free tickets and free rooms for these press junkets, in return the press basically only gets to see the hotels, fly on the airlines, etc. that have invested in the promotional junket). The only way I can think that somebody can be objective is if they take the week-long junket, THEN they remain at the place (give up the return ticket) at their own expense (or the expense of the publication) and explore on their own terms. And, still, since SOME publications accept junket invitations on the basis that said airline, hotel, etc. is going to buy a premium full-page color advertisement in the publication, the publication may not allow you to write anything bad about the said hotel, airline, etc. In my junket piece I flew on Garuda. Garuda is banned form flying to the EU or the USA due to safety concerns. (On my flight the plane tried to land, got real close to the ground, then took off again in a steep climb that freaked out everyone.) Nevertheless, the hack story I wrote (which I refused to put my name on -- I only took the junket to see if I wanted to go back to Indonesia) I recommend people take Garuda flights. This is how the system works, folks. You can be uppity about it, you can say "but everyone does it", or you can pretend like you can be objective in spite of taking these freebies, but if you do it you're a hack. And I include myself in that assessment. I don't want to get into the cattiness (I save that for the peanut gallery boards at the bottom of the MB page) but you seem to be very aggressive about being more experienced, but it's simply not true that you can't re-sell anymore. You just have to be more careful now (because of the permanence of your articles on the Internet) about the stories being too similar. |
