Active Duty Marines “Reverse-Embed” With the Media

What PR professional wouldn’t want to take a year off from their job and embed themselves in a newsroom? Financial implications aside, we can imagine most would jump at the opportunity.

Yahoo’s John Cook reports a fascinating story on how military public affairs offices are doing just that: “reverse-embedding” with the media.

Reports Cook:

According to military records obtained by The Upshot under the Freedom of Information Act, in recent years CNN, the Chicago Tribune, and a smattering of other smaller news outlets have all hosted active-duty military personnel as part of a Pentagon program designed to offer service members experience in the corporate world.

Lt. Col. Ricardo Player participated in the program between 2002 and 2004 at the Chicago Tribune.

“My goal was to grab as many good ideas from the Trib as I could and bring them with me back to the Marine Corps. I was able to take lessons learned back to Camp Pendleton. Their goal was to get the same from me,” he told Cook.

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