I'll never understand editors who think a comped experience means you can't write honestly about it. Like you, I never promise any kind of particular coverage if I am on a comped trip. I've refused to include things that I thought were subpar or not in line with the story I was writing.
The NYTimes might say they pay a writer's expenses -- and that's great! -- but I've been able to turn comped experiences into multiple stories. If I'm writing for The NYTimes, then that's one story. The whole system is built for writers who either saved up a lot of money from a previous career or who have a partner with a financially stable job.
I'm sure people with garbage parents will be honest about who they were even if they did 'comp' all of their expenses growing up. Comped trips is just an opportunity to let writers from less financially advantageous background to tell more stories in a world running on capitalism.
As ever, this is a really interesting discussion. I have similar issues around press tickets and hospitality for concerts and festivals. The best PRs understand that their role is to facilitate a journalist's access and then leave them to make their own observations about the event; others want to micromanage how I experience and respond to it. At the moment I'm doing a mixture of paying my own way and accepting hospitality ... I do like the compete independence of paying my own way, because some events just aren't set up to offer accommodation, let alone travel, but I can't afford to do it all the time. Thanks to your TTW course (prompting me to look below the line on a website for the 'travel trade' section) I've just managed to set up hospitality through a local tourist office for a new music festival ... the festival hadn't even told the tourist office that it was happening because the organiser is new to the whole business, but now they are in touch with one another because of my request so I hope we will all benefit!
I'll never understand editors who think a comped experience means you can't write honestly about it. Like you, I never promise any kind of particular coverage if I am on a comped trip. I've refused to include things that I thought were subpar or not in line with the story I was writing.
The NYTimes might say they pay a writer's expenses -- and that's great! -- but I've been able to turn comped experiences into multiple stories. If I'm writing for The NYTimes, then that's one story. The whole system is built for writers who either saved up a lot of money from a previous career or who have a partner with a financially stable job.
I'm sure people with garbage parents will be honest about who they were even if they did 'comp' all of their expenses growing up. Comped trips is just an opportunity to let writers from less financially advantageous background to tell more stories in a world running on capitalism.
As ever, this is a really interesting discussion. I have similar issues around press tickets and hospitality for concerts and festivals. The best PRs understand that their role is to facilitate a journalist's access and then leave them to make their own observations about the event; others want to micromanage how I experience and respond to it. At the moment I'm doing a mixture of paying my own way and accepting hospitality ... I do like the compete independence of paying my own way, because some events just aren't set up to offer accommodation, let alone travel, but I can't afford to do it all the time. Thanks to your TTW course (prompting me to look below the line on a website for the 'travel trade' section) I've just managed to set up hospitality through a local tourist office for a new music festival ... the festival hadn't even told the tourist office that it was happening because the organiser is new to the whole business, but now they are in touch with one another because of my request so I hope we will all benefit!