Think your company is a good corporate citizen? Think again.
If you are purchasing press as if it were legitimate news, you have stepped over the line. It is impossible to be a good corporate citizen and at the same time help destroy the underpinning of ethical journalism by buying press.
In other words, you can’t be half pregnant.
Today in Ukraine, multinational companies – Fortune 500 high-flyers – purchase newspaper stories with abandon. They either have their public relations or marketing departments buy stories as if they were legitimate news, or ask their public relations agencies to be a willing partner.
It was estimated at a recent European Business Association PR committee meeting that nearly 20 percent of all the “news stories” printed in Kyiv are bogus. These are so-called “hidden ads” – quite simply, purchased stories. The percentage rises dramatically in the regions.
In fact, companies – both multinational and regional – create a market for phony news and, in so doing, contribute to one of the worst practices in journalism in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. It impedes the development of a free press.
Why? The answer is simple: It is easy and it is available. Also, newspapers and television stations put forth the ruse that if a product’s name is mentioned in a story, the article must be treated as an ad.
This is untrue. There is no such legislation. It is merely the extrapolation of a statute to ludicrous lengths. The interpretation doesn’t pass the common-sense test, nor is it a practice in Western countries. It merely is a big tree for lazy PR people to hide behind.
Another reason for buying press that I have heard from expats is, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This statement, if strictly adhered to, would make outlaws of most of us.
Finally, there is the argument that paid press is the only way to fight so-called “black PR,” nefarious practices used to defame a company. This simply means that a company’s strategic advisors – press and otherwise – are not sufficiently creative to come up with a legitimate battle plan.
However, I think it is best to concentrate on why buying press – other than the fact that it is just wrong – doesn’t make good business sense. In fact, it’s a waste of time and resources.
Purchased press has absolutely no credibility. At the EBA PR committee meeting, Myron Wasylyk, managing director of The PBN Company, a public affairs firm, pointed to a survey that revealed that virtually no one believes purchased stories.
From past experience with companies that have purchased press, it is apparent that it represents a slippery slope. Once you buy press, you can’t get into that same publication again without paying – even for a legitimate story with real news value.
From a newsman’s viewpoint – and I was an editor many years before forming a PR agency – a purchased story generally has little news value and represents platitudes and positioning statements put forth by a company. In other words, they represent fried air.
It is the job of a company’s PR department or agency to ferret out legitimate news and to package it in such a way that it is recognized as having news value. It is not easy, but it is why companies have PR departments and agencies. It takes absolutely no talent to purchase stories.
Whether in Kyiv, Krakow or Kalamazoo, a good story with news value will rise to the stop of the stack and be published or broadcast. No one wants to miss a good story.
If corruption is endemic in Ukraine, this one aspect might be thought small. It is not. But one thing is certain: Purchased press will exist so long as it has enablers who otherwise pride themselves on being socially responsible corporate citizens.
Editor’s Note: Business Sense is a feature in which experts explain Ukraine’s place in the world economy and provide insight into doing business in the country. To contribute, contact chief editor Brian Bonner at
