Do businesses ever pay money to newspapers or magazines to have news articles published?
February 28th, 2010 | by Rarzi |Is it common for a business or group to pay money to have a news article that is favorable to them published? When I read a newspaper or a magazine it seems like a lot of the stories are slanted. (The story is one sided and both sides of an issues are not being presented.) Also, many times I can’t figure out why this article is even being published. Thank you for your answer.
2 Responses to “Do businesses ever pay money to newspapers or magazines to have news articles published?”
By Kay P on Feb 28, 2010 | Reply
Ah, yes. How do you think the media makes money? They rely on people/ companies paying for space in their papers.
By desertviking_00 on Feb 28, 2010 | Reply
In TV news there is a practice called the “trade out”. The TV news crew does some favorable reporting on a business and the staff of that station get a few “perks” from the business.
I suspect the same thing may be going on with the publication you mention. Never forget that the chief talent of all of these graduates of university-based schools of journalism is to read and write press releases. Publishing those releases, unedited, is also something they do.