It has been called Willard’s folly—though certainly others have waged mightily against this practice (including the Kyiv Post)—but I have held fast to this issue for the better part of two decades as a magazine publisher and newspaper, ad and PR executive. 

The tally thus far? Well, by way of comparison, just picture the Klitschko boys tag-teaming a chess champion named Tiny Tim.

The lopsided score would merit an entry in that famous Guinness book. 

Corporations damage their own reputations when they subvert real journalism in this despicable way

But, for some strange reason, each year I pick myself up off the canvas and go to the opposing corner. With this being the last issue of the Kyiv Post before the New Year, it is time to answer the old bell again. That Don Quixote fellow has nothing on me.

For starters (I open with a roundhouse to the Doughboy’s chin), paid press represents corporate irresponsibility. A company can have an arsenal of social responsibility projects, but if it fails on this point, it’s a CSR basket case.

If your company is buying press and pretending that it’s news, it is undermining a free press. It is corrupting the entire information process by, in essence, lying to the public.

Such companies are, in fact, attempting to fool the public into thinking the stories are legitimate. They are not. They represent advertising — self-promotion.

The fact is there would not be a market for paid press if large local and multinational companies did not serve as “enablers.”

They are, in fact, the problem, as much or more so than the news media that take money to place favorable stories.

As I once wrote (using a line from the cartoon strip Pogo): “We have met the enemy and he is us (corporations).”

If one is in the media business, it is easy to name respected East European leaders in technology, pharmaceutical, tobacco, agriculture, financial, fast-moving consumer goods – virtually every sector – who engage in purchasing press. Very few companies are lily white.

Purchased press sometimes happens without the knowledge of the CEO; but, more often, there is the leadership attitude that “when in Rome, do as the Roman’s do.” A new managing director might feel Pollyannaish if he squelched a long-time practice.

A marketing or PR director has several motives for buying press: It’s easy. It’s guaranteed placement and it is always nice to place a handful of article or video reports on the boss’s desk and boast of the department’s effectiveness.

Other than the fact that it is wrong, is there an argument to companies that purchasing press is simply not a good idea? Let me count the ways (a series of jabs to the Doughboy’s soft belly here):

It is a slippery slope. Once you purchase a news story, it is difficult to go back to that publication or broadcast outlet and get coverage without payment when you have legitimate news.

Purchased stories lack credibility. A reasonably intelligent person can discern a legitimate, objective story from one that is obviously one-sided.

A purchased story is often not even news but “positioning statements,” slogans and advertising copy.  Placed in a news context, they become platitudes.

It takes no talent to purchase stories. It should not be a function of PR. Let your PR agency or internal PR people do their jobs by promoting legitimate stories to the media. 

Finally, whether in Memphis or Moscow, Kyiv or Krakow, a good story with news value will rise to the top of the stack and be published or broadcast. No editor wants to miss a good story.

Against a backdrop of fist-throwing legislators, official corruption so common it is blase, and incompetence so extreme that a prime minister can be hoodwinked into showing up at a ceremony for a bogus gas deal, purchased press might seem a single flea on a very dirty, shaggy dog – hardly consequential.

It is important, however.  Big time. Transparency begins with people being able to have faith in the institutions that bring them the news. If they don’t, all else remains a house of very unstable cards.
I am now ready for the second round in 2013. 

Kyiv Post CEO Michael Willard can be reached at [email protected]