Don’t bother crying foul over chequebook journalism
Magazines have a long history of paying for tall tales simply because these stories sell. Paul Merrill debates the whys and wherefores of chequebook journalism
Years ago, when I was editing a women’s weekly mag, we were offered a story about a chicken that thought it was a dog. Sweet enough for a single pager, so we offered the owner around $100 and despatched a snapper to capture the chook in action. But we’d jumped the gun. Another mag had offered her $200, and no contract had been signed. As the photographer was going to cost us some $500, we upped our offer, and so did the other mag. Eventually, we paid this woman $650, and ended up with some photos of a chicken that looked like a chicken, and a few anecdotes about it enjoying running with the border collies.
Chequebook journalism sells magazines. Gone are the days when a case history would be so thrilled to be appearing in a national publication they wouldn’t even think about asking for money. These days, anyone with a dog-like hen would have Max Markson on speed dial.
But what are the limits? Channel Nine was berated a while back for allegedly offering a prostitute $60,000 to spill the beans on Craig Thomson. Yet paying a celebrity to kiss and tell on another celebrity is fine. Is that because hookers are less credible than famous people? Arguably both will do a lot if the money’s right.
short and sharp, Paul.
nice piece. i hope you are landing on your feet.
There’s basically no coherent argument here, just an assertion that it’s an easy way to get stories, and everyone’s doing it anyway. And the idea that there is a blurring of public interest and an interested public, and that the former “should be irrelevant shows a complete lack of understanding of what it is. Pretty weak stuff
So mags pay people to appear in their pages. I’m not sure the readers care less, do they?
Well, it’s a free market. Besides, in this day and age the “thrill” of being in the media isn’t so thrilling any more, not if you can get 10x more views on youtube with less effort.
And seriously, “public interest”? We’re talking WW and Zoo here, not Time. We’re talking stories about Jo Jo the Dog Faced Boy, photos of celebs eating lunch, etc.
If magazines want to pay people to get a story, I don’t see anything wrong with that.