Press trips are indeed icky no matter how you slice it. Unfortunately they’re pretty much critical to travel writing, since no one but the NYT, Time Inc., Conde Nast etc could actually afford firsthand reporting (or “reporting”) otherwise. Probably the worst ROI of any genre of journalism if individuals had to pay for everything they experienced on assignment. No coincidence that only large conglomerates can afford to enforce no-junket rules on staff or freelancers (assuming said media entity has regular travel coverage). Of course there’s definitely lots of contemptible behavior among travel writers, but probably no more than I’ve observed among, say, fashion writers. In either case it’s usually obvious who’s in the pocket of the covered party. The introduction of money (or comps) will always corrupt a certain percentage of anyone in any field, anyways.
All fair points. I think I’m nostalgic for a journalism world I never knew—one in which there were huge T&E budgets that allowed journalists to flit around the world at a moment’s notice. Or, say, hang around Frank Sinatra for three months.
I thought Mohney did an excellent job of 1) saying up front that he was on a press trip and 2) doing his best to make the junket report interesting reading—which it was!
As for whether travel journalists should be taking comps, consider: A business class seat for a weekend trip between JFK and DXB is current selling for $8,657. Forget the rest of a writer’s expenses and, for the sake of argument, forget actually paying the writer a dime for filing. There just aren’t many publications that are going to pay 9 large for a plane ticket.
At least one will, though: Conde Nast Traveler sent Michael Kinsley around the world in business class last fall. And, speaking of nostalgia, he’s so old school that he actually didn’t like it.
Not complaining about press trips, but who said he had to go business? Why, he can go there next month on Aeroflot for under a grand. And unless you’re Harry Evans or Michael Kinsley, even CNT doesn’t give out a big T&E budget either. Journalists fly coach these days so, you know, our outlets can continue to exist. I wish the big budget writers would do the same.
