Oregon Media Insiders

I stumbled across a couple of references to a recent article from Advertising Age magazine, the bible for marketers, public relations experts and creative pimps everywhere. The article quoted liberally from an interview with Mark Hass, the President of Manning, Selvage and Lee, “one of the largest U.S. public relations companies.” The premise of the article dealt with the practice of PR firms, ad agencies and advertising clients to use their financial clout as a way of applying pressure and influencing content for newspapers, television and other mass media outlets.

From the article, excerpted from: http://www.detroitmakeithere.com/article/20080807/DM02/239980613/-1

“A survey conducted in May 2008 on behalf of Manning, Selvage &Lee, and the trade publication PR Week found that nearly one in five senior marketers "say their organizations have bought advertising in return for a news story." The survey queried 252 U.S. chief marketing officers. "The survey also found that 10 percent of senior marketers said their organizations have had an implicit / non-verbal agreement with a reporter or editor that anticipated favorable coverage of their company or products in exchange for advertising," according to an MS&L press release.

The article goes on to say, “The sixth-annual MS&L Marketing Management Survey, done in conjunction with PRWeek, found that 19 percent of the 252 chief marketing officers and marketing directors surveyed said their organizations had bought advertising in return for a news story. That represents one in five senior marketers and is up from 17 percent last year.

"I'm not saying it's a huge problem," Hass said. "But 19 percent of senior marketers saying they do it constitutes a problem."

That's particularly true in this age of transparency. "One type of coverage you buy and the other you achieve through persuasive argument, making it a credible source of information and not something that has to be taken with a grain of salt," Hass said. "There needs to be credible, independent media, and the marketing industry should not be doing anything to undermine credible editorial quality."

This year's study also found that 8 percent of respondents, up from 5 percent in 2007, said their organizations paid or provided a gift of value to an editor or producer to place a news story about the company or one of its products. And 10 percent said their organizations have at one time or another had an "implicit/non-verbal agreement with a reporter or editor that you expect to see favorable coverage of your product or company in exchange for advertising."