What would you do in this situation? Please weigh in with your responses.

Cruisin' for a bruisin'?
Your magazine publishes an annual listing of continuing education programs for your industry. From time to time, a program's subject matter strikes your interest, and it makes sense to commission an in-depth article about it. Because you don't have a large travel budget, you customarily assign freelance writers to interview the speakers by phone and prepare a feature article based on the program's content.

One day, you get a phone call from the producer of a unique training program that takes place on a cruise ship for four days. The program involves international maritime trade—a topic that could be of interest to your readers. (Workshops take place daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., plus dinner speakers on two of the evenings.) You haven't covered this program in the past because you don't have the money to attend, and telephone interviews wouldn't do it justice. Besides, while the topic is of interest, it isn't crucial to cover it in-depth beyond mention in the listing.

The producer is calling because there's a last-minute vacancy on the ship, and she's offering it to you or one of your writers. You'd be responsible for airfare to and from the ship, a cost your budget could afford. They would pick up the berth and group meals—costs they've already incurred. The trip sounds very interesting, and so does the program. And your calendar is free for that week. Do you accept the offer?


Note: this scenario, based on real-life experiences, was developed by Ira Pilchen, editor, American Bar Association, and Tony Stasiek, editor, Scotsman Publishing Inc., for the 2006 ASBPE Editorial Conference. Visit www.asbpe.org/about/code.htm to read about the group's Code of Ethics.

I think this is a scenario where a lot of people might engage in hand-wringing, just because the location is a nice one.

I'd most likely go, and not just for the tan. I find that with a lot of trips, I discover more from talking to people at a dinner function than from the actual meeting topic. Whether it is a prospective advertiser or a prospective reader, it is helpful to me to hear the kinds of things that are affecting them. One of those conversations might turn into a great feature story.

Personally, I think that some editors don't get out of the office enough. You can only glean so much from emails and press releases.

Our policy at Latin Trade (www.latintrade.com):

Latin Trade correspondents and editors do not accept travel junkets of any kind. We are edging slowly into travel writing through various supplements and are experimenting with where to draw the line for those publications (for instance, our Brazil Editor is working on a feature on business class travel, and we're flying him around the region and obviously not paying for the tickets).

For normal Latin Trade issues, however, no free travel. If we want you to go somewhere, we will finance it or we will not. Sometimes, there are weird cases, like trips where the official government plane is the only way in or out. These we will handle on a case-by-case basis and always with advance editorial approval.

Public-relations professionals have told me that they are aghast at how many Latin American journalists show up for their junkets to cover corporate events, attend the first day, then disappear, only to reappear for the flight home five days later sunburned and carrying a suitcase of duty-free stuff. They bring along their wives and husbands as "assistants" and don't write squat about the company that paid for their virtual vacation. Latin Trade will not be joining these folks in this practice.

While this scenario has rarely come up in my career in B2B magazines, it can be, as was pointed out earlier, a real hand-wringer -- IF the editor/writer clearly perceives the cruise passengers to be good and credible sources and the subject is pertinent.

In general, I'm a believer in the ethical canons at most major newspapers: no freebies, especially junkets, even if not all the travel is paid. There is simply an appearance of impropriety and, later, a sense of obligation to the sponsor (after all, look what they did for you).

The few times that I've been approached with these kinds of offers in recent years have been no-brainers: the topic was inappropriate or so broad as to be pointless. And, I've got to confess that the thought of being trapped on a ship with people avoiding "reporters" or with noxious PR types isn't exactly appealing.

Greg's comments about the abuses perpetrated by Latin American journalists are pretty shocking. I don't think any North American journalists could get away with that; maybe they really do operate by a different set of rules down there.

It's absolutely a different set of rules, largely because they are very different histories of journalism. In Mexico, for instance, until recently the newspapers subsisted on direct payments from government in exchange for coverage. In Brazil, it's incredibly common for journalists to write press releases in the morning and then a story for the newspaper in the afternoon.

This is poverty, plain and simple. It's easy enough for a rich country to have divisions and ethics, harder if you're a struggling journalist with a family, a college degree but no steady income.

That said, not all Latin American journalists are alike, and many adhere to unimpeachable standards (and risk their lives reporting on corruption, drug trafficking and the like). Some of the best professional journalists I have met in my life are Brazilians and Mexicans and Colombians, and some of the worst abusers of fam trips and the like are U.S. travel writers who think nothing of hopping on a cruise to the Bahamas for a week at no cost to themselves.

It takes all kinds, right?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Greg,

Greg's earlier comments reminded me of a cover story from Meetings & Conventions magazine from a couple of years ago ... it deals with "fam (familiarization) trips" that meeting planners go on. Apparently, there are a lot of unscrupulous people who totally take advantage of these trips. Give it a read, really unbelieveable ...

http://www.meetings-conventions.com/on-the-cover.aspx?articleid=47169

Most publications prohibit the acceptance of anything of significant value (the line is usally anything worth $10 or more) without paying for it. It's irrelevant that the giver has already borne the cost; the fact that it is of value and you're not paying for it is the issue. Sorry, no dice.