5
Post Not the Only Paper Selling Access
By Kevin Spak
|
Posted Jul 4, 09 11:15 AM CDT
|
Share
(Newser)
–
As they wipe the egg off their face, Washington Post executives are probably wondering why they got slammed so badly for selling access to Washington bigwigs and Post reporters at "salons" at the publisher's home. At least two other news organizations—the Wall Street Journal and the Economist—are doing much the same thing, Politico reports.
For a few thousand bucks, the Economist arranges intimate, off-the-record meetings with world leaders. The Journal, meanwhile, is charging $7,500 for a November gathering including the paper’s editors, Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch, and Arne Duncan. That event is at least on the record, potentially benefiting readers. But in March the Journal arranged an off-record talk by Larry Summers, at the White House, as part of a $5,000-a-head conference.