These are the Dirtiest Words in Freelancing
Why demanding "Confirmed Coverage" for a spot on a press trip is the worst idea ever
Greetings, Substack readers! I hope your week is off to a great (and productive) start!
(The photo below is of me and my Writer Friend Tamara Gane on a press trip that didn’t require Confirmed Coverage.)
I’ve often dreamed of starting my own magazine.
It wouldn’t be a flashy vanity pub, filled with stories about all the things I like or even things I’m curious about. No, this magazine, titled Confirmed Coverage, would be filled with stories from my fellow freelance writers who are pressured to get a story placed for publication before accepting (or even being allowed to accept) a coveted spot on a press trip.
As the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, whenever a Writer Friend would email me and say “I’ve been offered this really great trip. The itinerary is right up my alley and I know I will get lots of great stories out of it—but they’re requiring a confirmed assignment before I can go,” I’d email back and say “Your story has a place in Confirmed Coverage magazine!” and then they could go on the trip.
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Press trip organizers requiring (we all know it would be preferred) that writers have confirmed coverage before accepting a trip sucks—and it’s actually not in a client/PR firm’s best interest to do so. Here’s why.
Let’s look at all sides of this issue. From the PR company’s side, they’re answering to their client, so they want to make sure the client is happy and continues to want the PR firm’s representation. From the client’s side, they are shelling out big bucks to bring writers to their destination to experience all the Wonderful Things they want to share about it.
The client, who has in-depth knowledge about the destination, along with the PR firm, collaborate to pull rabbits from hats to cover flights, meals in restaurants that are cool/notable/unique, and all kinds of activities from kayaking to forging a knife to cheesemaking to museum tours. All they’re asking for in return from the writer is a story to share details about the hotel/restaurant/experience/trip to get their client in front of the eyes of people who will follow the writer’s suggestions and book a trip to the destination. But they have to be under contract to write about it before they can accept a place on the trip.
There are several reasons why this is problematic.
As a journalist, taking freebies and guaranteeing that a “positive review” for the outlet the PR firm wants me to write for is basically pay-for-play/advertorial and unethical from a journalist’s perspective. That’s why many publications, like the New York Times and BBC, won’t take stories that have been anywhere near a press trip. They don’t want someone to come out and say, “This writer was paid to write this glowing review” about a place. There are also so many places that don’t get a fair shake when it comes to coverage because they lack representation.
Plus, if I’m contracted to write a story about, say, a hotel, and the experience somehow turns out to be really bad, I couldn’t in good conscience write a story about how great my experience was.That said, I really hate when publications won’t accept stories that come from press trips, because some great stories come from those experiences, comped or not. Also, even getting a great pay rate on a story still doesn’t put me in a place financially to take amazing and extravagant trips every month, so press trips are the only way I would be able to experience some of these destinations/restaurants/excursions—and as writers we often get to do things people planning their own trips wouldn’t think of.
This is the Gray Area of the freelance writing world—a sort of double edged sword. You have to take the trip to get the story, but placing a story promoting something you got for free starts to bleed into the questionable ethics department.Very few editors want to accept a story on something before you’ve been there and experienced it yourself. It’s nearly impossible to place a great story before your trip, because there are so many things that can change (see number 5 below) and honestly, the experience itself is so much deeper than what you glean from an itinerary.
Writers, if you pitch an idea to an editor before your trip and get crickets, there’s a way you can encourage a response and get your story accepted—read number 7.If you demand Confirmed Coverage before a writer can accept a trip, you are setting yourself up to get the lowest hanging fruit. Place a quickie story in a small publication with a small readership? OK, I can do that. But if you trust me to tell the stories that come out of the true experiences of the trip, I’m a lot more motivated to get those out there to those better publications who really want interesting stories.
It’s not to say that a small confirmed story means I’m done writing about your destination, but I don’t feel the urgency to get ideas out pronto after the trip the way I do when there’s not a confirmed coverage requirement. Somehow when I have more control over what I’m writing about because the pressure of Confirmed Coverage isn’t there, I’m more excited about placing a Really Great Story.The only thing constant is change, as they say, so as a writer, selling a story before your take a trip is setting yourself up to shoot yourself in the foot. Why? Because there are so many variables on any given trip—I will tell you I’ve had plans/activities/accommodation/dining change due to weather, timing, availability of an activity—I’ve even had my story killed because another writer on the same trip had the same assignment from the same publication—assigned to me by one editor and to her by another, they didn’t realize until we were on the trip they had double-assigned. It’s much better not to promise something you can’t deliver because of something you can’t control.
I know where a client is coming from when they think, “Hey, what if I invite this writer over and they eat and drink and do all the Wonderful Things and they go home and nothing happens? I just paid for them to have a free trip!”
Part of the job of a PR professional is to vet the writers they’re inviting on press trips and to develop a relationship with them.As a writer, when I travel with you, I’m trusting you to provide a certain experience (one I can’t wait to write about) and you also need to be able trust that I’m not a flake who’s just out for a free ride. When I have worked so hard to build a career as a freelancer, written for top tier publications about stories I’ve gotten from press trips, and am a reliable and responsible traveler, it’s kind of insulting to be asked for confirmed coverage. Why? Because I know that writing about the destination/trip is part of my job.
I’ve started responding to these requests for confirmed coverage from press trip planners by saying, “I’ve written for top tier publications like Travel + Leisure, AFAR, Huff Post, Thrillist, and others (they already know that if I’ve been invited on the trip) and have a proven track record of placing stories post-trip.” I feel like my portfolio speaks for itself enough to assure PR pros that I have my poop in a group enough to write about the trip.
If you happen to pitch some thing to an editor before the trip and don’t hear anything, you might follow up with them while you’re on the trip and have done the thing you pitched.
For example: “Hi Editor, I’m just finished the Murren to Gimmelwald Via Ferrata I pitched to you before my trip—it was even more awesome than I expected! I’d love to share with readers what it’s like to be a first time via ferrata climber, some of the scenery I experienced overlooking Lauterbrunnen Valley, and what to do and see in nearby Interlocken. Let me know what you think!”
They might just follow up with a confirmed story!I’d love to get everyone’s thoughts on this matter—please feel free to leave a comment!
This is really helpful, thank you! I really like #7 - great idea! I've never thought of pitching again during or after.