If you’re relatively certain you’ll get a good media placement because your story can stand on its own two feet, guess again. You might be elbowed out by somebody who had the big bucks to pay journalists to cover it.
Almost half of the 266 marketing executives polled by PR Week and Manning Selvage & Lee, a PR firm, say they have paid print or broadcast outlets to cover their stories. And nearly 46 percent of those who had not paid for placement replied that they would consider doing so in the future.
The most common pay-per-placement “opportunities” in TV are paying to be featured on a morning TV news show that’s disguised as a local version of “Good Morning, America.” Shows like Colorado & Company in Denver are springing up all over the U.S. I wrote an article about this for the June issue of PR Tactics, a newspaper printed by the Public Relations Society of America.
In the print world, newspapers and magazines sometimes create special advertising sections that feature stories only about businesses that buy ads in that section.
Expect more “opportunities” like this in the future, as traditional media outlets face increasing competition from the Internet and continue to fight for ad dollars, viewers and subscribers.
Great read I would suggest doing some twitter adverting as well.