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In case you haven't seen it yet, make sure to read Mike Allen's pretty amazing story over at Politico, which exposes a new business plan being put together by The Washington Post that would offer lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to high ranking government officials at "Post Salon" dinner events in exchange for huge cash payments, starting at $25,000 a pop. The really astonishing part of the story is already being walked back (sort of) by The Washington Post newsroom, however, as a flier obtained by Politico insinuated that access to the paper's own reporters and editors was also potentially for sale. Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and spokesperson Kris Coratti told Politico that the newsroom would not participate in the first scheduled event, which will focus on health-care reform, because it would be inappropriate, but left room for the possibility that other Post Salons might feature editorial staffers. UPDATE 12:38 p.m.: Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth has just announced that she's canceling all the dinners. What a mess.
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Since we all now read their product for free, they're desperate to make money any damn way they can, and that's going to lead to ethically dubious decision-making. The "brick wall" between editorial and business is no longer being dismantled a brick at a time; it's just been dynamited.
Stay classy Washington Post. What idiots. Kudos to Politico on this scoop. It's good to know that at least the Newsroom's Brauchli manned up and deftly reiterated that they were the paper that at one time broke Watergate. It will be interesting to see the fallout from this and how it effects editors and namely one Ms. Weymouth.
Worst. Idea. Ever.
Now, I'm sympathetic to the plight of the Post and all the other (formerly) world-class news outlets whose business models have been flushed thanks in no small part to their own mismanagement and disrespect of the art and value of newsgathering. Belts are tight and times is tough.
But how in the world did this idea not get laughed, then cried, out of the editorial meeting as ethically bankrupt at best and possibly illegal at worst? Get it together WaPo.
I thought this type of marketing cluster#%@! was limited to the kind of small town papers that puppies wouldn't pee on, but apparently the marketing execs at those papers have made their way up the food chain. I know newspapers are a financially strapped lot these days, but this kind of wholesale whoring of the news section will only further their decline. All newspapers have to offer is their credibility, after all. Once you sell that, the gig is up.
Oh god, who the hell came up with (and who the hell stayed silent) about this ridiculously unethical and unprofessional scheme?