WaPo To Reporters: No More Speaking At “Single Sponsor” Events

Are you trying to book a Washington Post reporter to speak at your company’s next event? It may be a bit harder, according to new guidelines from the newspaper:

…newsroom staffers will participate in Post conferences or events only when there are “multiple sponsors.” Participation in single-sponsor events “can create the appearance that we are trying to further that sponsor’s individual interest, especially if that sponsor has a direct financial or political interest in the topic.

The new guidelines come after a scandal from this past July, when it was revealed the newspaper’s publisher wanted to arrange off the record dinners at her home with Post employees, government officials and corporate sponsors, says the Post‘s Howard Kurtz.

[Via Romenesko]

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