Here’s a hypothetical situation for you. On your press trip/ blog trip/ whatever you want to call it, you partake in an activity for free. When you agreed to it in the first place, you thought it would be perfect for your blog/ publication.
But when you get there, you discover it’s not right. The experience is lovely, the guys organising it have gone to considerable time and expense to make it happen, but it’s just not relevant to your readership. Perhaps it’s something they couldn’t afford or something that wouldn’t suit their interests. Or maybe it becomes clear that the experience has been created just for you – there’s no realistic way that any of the readers could replicate it. More likely, it’s some combination of the three.
The question here is simple. What do you do about it?
Is it A) write a story about the experience anyway?
Or B) Try and shoehorn something about the experience in to another story in a bid to keep the organisers happy.
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Perhaps C) Don’t write about it and hope no-one notices.
Or maybe D) Don’t write about it and explain to all the people who have given up their time and money to help you out why you’re not going to write about it.
Simple question, yes. But one I think you should know the answer to before you go on a press trip/ blog trip/ whatever you want to call it.
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D. Ideally you will have explained exactly what you’re doing there and what your readers want before you go, so this kind of screw up doesn’t happen. But when it does – and oh, it very often does – I think if you’ve set your stall out beforehand and made it clear what you’re doing, then any attempts that they make to crowbar their activity into your agenda is on them. When this kind of thing is sprung on me, I’ll explain to the PR beforehand exactly why I won’t be writing about it. If time is tight, I probably won’t do it. I’ll go and see that thing that I DO want to write about. If I really can’t get out of it… very occasionally there will be something that I learn about that I can use. Mostly there isn’t. So long as you’re clear beforehand, I don’t think there should be guilt about time and money.
Did they give you the trip in exchange for the story? Are you a journalist or a PR outlet?
If the issue is compatibility with your readers – you should have assessed one another’s mutual interest ahead of time. If you failed to do that then I’d probably just suck it up and publish it anyway. That was the deal.
If the issue isn’t one of compatibility, but rather of quality/honesty/integrity – then you owe it your readers to publish the story and be honest about your qualms. If the organizers faked the experience just for you then share that with your readers. It would be rather yellow to do otherwise.
Hmm tricky. If it was unsuitable for a regular publication, I would think of writing about it on my blog. Not to just dump it somewhere, but actually to describe the context of the media trip etc to the readers, making it clear it’s not easy to replicate. That way it’d become a story about how the travel media works, presenting some value for the readers. After all I need to write regularly on my blog and its free-form nature allows me to write there in a way that couldn’t be done in other publications.
That said, if it wouldn’t really work for the blog either, I’d have to say thanks but it won’t work for any of my usual outlets because the experience isn’t something readers could do themselves. Probably later I suppose, when I’d had a chance to think it through.
Somewhere between B and D. One of the key things is that it’s been an enjoyable experience, so while it doesn’t fit for the main piece, I don’t see a reason not to write about it if possible. If, as people have said, someone’s tried to shoehorn it in despite it obviously not being a good fit, that’s a different situation, but if it’s case that there’s been crossed wires somehow or it looked like it would be a good fit but then wasn’t, I’d see if there was another home. Just because it’s not relevant to the readers of publication A, doesn’t mean other readers wouldn’t be interested.
More complicated is when it’s not something a reader could replicate – however fantastic it is, there has to be a way people can do it themselves. Otherwise, you can only really do something on a personal blog or Twitter etc.
As a reader part of me thinks A coz it could well be the best story. As a corporate drone B coz it would be nice to get *something* out of it. Minimum D though. C only if it’s *really* bad in which case that’s a good story. A. Am sticking with A.
I’m with Tim Richards. If you have your own blog or website then there is no such thing any more as your readership, in the same way print publications have. Your readership is whoever happens to find you by Googling, and a story about the experience you had is relevant to them because they were looking for information about it – so you can cover it. I don’t know where it leaves you if all your outlets are print, though, with more targetted readerships.
I agree with Nikki that as long as you’re upfront before going on a trip it shouldn’t be an issue. I always try to make it clear to PRs and tour operators etc that while I will of course do my best I can’t guarantee coverage for precisely the reasons you outline – so you shouldn’t just have to suck it up and file unsuitable copy. And I agree with Cathy that if it’s interesting why not write about it for somewhere else if possible.
In typical fashion I’d question your starting point. You have to get the organiser/PR person to do it the way you need it done to get the story. And if during the trip you find it’s been hijacked (sometimes in a completely well-meaning fashion) you have to tell them ‘I need it done like this or the story won’t happen’. You and only you knows your angle, you know your publication and their readership. So… none of the above.
D. Pure and simple.
I try really hard not to get to this situation. If it’s all set up correctly, it won’t happen. In a perfect world. Blah blah blah.
But worst case? D. A. No, wait. Sometimes, you have to let it sit and it turns out there’s a market or an appropriate story later. I’m thinking about something specific and swank I did that I really enjoyed, but, oops, it’s not really *my* story. But a few months later, I landed a market that’s really an ideal fit and I can work the destination into that. Know what I mean?
So, yeah. D. A. Both? Not B. Let me clarify, it’s not my job to make the organizers happy. But it is possible to find the right place for that experience, with time and research and serendiptiy, and then the organizers ARE happy, but it’s as a byproduct.
Jeremy Head’s got it. The whole time you’re travelling you’ve got to be assessing how everything you do fits with the format or readership of the piece(s) for which you’ve been commissioned. If what you’re doing at any particular point doesn’t fit, you’ve got to stop doing it (unless you’ve stumbled on something unbelievably awesomely astonishing, in which case maybe you can sell it as a fresh piece afterwards).
And if you realise things don’t fit during a purpose-designed experience, you’ve got to have the vision – and gumption – to pull the plug (on what, as has been said, might be the best of intentions) and reshape the experience there & then.
It’s business. Nothing personal.
am I the only one who thinks it is weird that bloggers only review the positive and are willing to just ignore the negative?
if the scenario involves them trying to pull the old bait ‘n’ switch (one of the possibilities you outlined in the OP) then your readers should know about it (assuming you care about your readership).
this is why I don’t trust or put much stock in sponsored posts.
Well, well, well. This is really interesting. When I wrote this one, I rather intended the right answer to presented as something of a fait accompli. To me, the answer is obviously D). If something’s not relevant and replicable for your readership, you’re only writing it for the benefit of the PR people involved. To me, that crosses an ethical line – I don’t see how you can say you’re editorially independent if you’re writing something purely for the sake of the PRs who’ve given you a freebie.
I thoroughly agree that it’s best to make sure something’s right beforehand, but occasionally that doesn’t happen (ie. it’s presented to you too late to change it or when you show up the experience is markedly different to how you were told it would be).
But the really interesting thing is that some of your responses have shifted my views somewhat. I can never agree with “I’d probably just suck it up and publish it anyway. That was the deal.” The deal is NEVER freebie in return for story – it is freebie in return for inclusion in story if it turns out to be right for the story.
I also think it’s wrong to see a blog as a convenient dumping ground for things you can’t publish elsewhere.
But I think Cathy’s right – you may be able to write about aspects of the experience elsewhere. And it may be a far better fit for another story elsewhere. I’ve probably phrased B) wrong – it should be a less loaded “fit it into another relevant story where possible”.
And to me, the right approach would be to explain to the organisers why I can’t include it in the original story (basically, option D) but say that it may be right for another story somewhere down the line. And to look at what that story might be.
Thanks for all the responses, though – very interesting debate.
As you say, a very interesting debate, but one point is still missing, I think. You don’t touch on whether you are on an organised press trip or travelling independently and who initiated the activity. If on a group trip, you frequently find yourself doing things that may not fit your individual story because the organisers try to balance the needs of the whole group. As a result, I have become much more laid back about using those elements of a trip I can fit into the story. And I don’t think any PR would expect every travel writer on the trip to mention every restaurant, café and attraction on the tour, much as they would love it. It is obviously different if I have set up the itinerary myself and approached people about facilities.
I guess I really don’t understand the scenario.
Seems to be a shifting scenario even as we discuss. Self-funded travel writer or part of a group media famil? Blogger, freelancer, staffer? So many things can and may influence a decision. Good points here from several respondents. Most trips throw up far more material than ever makes it to print or screen so I’d suggest there’s always going to be natural selection between the fit and the lame.