Over the years a number of my clients have been approached with various offers from companies to get their company or school’s ‘story‘ on the air.  The ‘air’ ranged from a program, which ran on ABC’s Lifetime, to PBS programming to interstitials running on U.S. Airline programming.   Prices for programming ranged from $20k to $40k for a 3-5 minute story.   One element of the sale was that some mid-level TV personalities are involved with some of the production companies making the pieces.

A recent NY Times story   highlights some recent confusion surrounding these so-called ‘pay for play’ content pitches.  The confusion ranges from what the companies were offering to how the programming could wind up on PBS. 

I have always found this kind of pitch extremely fishy.  Almost any journalist worth his or her salt will tell you that buying a positive news-like story about your company is, at best, highly suspect.  Before shelling out money and running to the publicity bank, companies need to understand who is watching these programs, the details of the time slots and audience demographic profiles.  A client might also try to determine who is researching and writing the piece and who gets final approval on the script before it is completed.

I have been told that some production companies charge clients for usage of the footage, even after the program has aired – so despite paying for the piece the client does not own the final product.  I guess it’s another way to make more money of that client. 

While the old adage ‘any publicity is good publicity’ might ring in the
ears of marketing teams at lesser known companies, there are myriad ways to disseminate a
story in the new Wild West of the Internet.  Finally, it should go without saying — before signing on the dotted line carefully read the fine print.  Caveat emptor.