Recently I read an article discussing a new way of
advertising taking place in China.
China is a country that censor news all the time especially
politically delicate news coverage. Now however, the print and broadcast media
in China have been allowing companies to buy coverage for a price. Many public relation firms and companies in
China acts as brokers in buying flattering coverage- which in China is referred
to as” soft news or paid news”. A
company recently paid 10,000 a page for a five page feature in the Chinese
version of Esquire.
The journalist who wrote the piece stated that Chinese laws
and regulations ban promotional material that is not labeled as such, but the
practice is so widespread that many publications and broadcaster have rate
cards listing news for sale prices. This practice seem very deceptive to me, we look at articles
in our magazine such as Business week, Times and know that the reason that they
are featuring this company or this person is that they have created a news
product or they have a major accomplishment that is noteworthy. I hope that
this pay for new or feature articles does not spread to the US. If it does it could effect how we see our
Business Leaders.
Do you believe that we
should allow businesses to pay for Coverage?
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