Something which has been on my mind for quite some time has been causing me some concern — and that is the evolution of journalism overall in the day and age of electronic media. Information — real or fake — is easier than ever to disseminate with the use of social media; and the double-edged sword of mixed blessings it has created has eventually led to the increasingly difficulty of the struggle to survive for many traditional media outlets. This, in turn, has led to fewer journalists reporting on the news in a way which is fair, unbiased and informative — and is part of the reason for the overall declining quality of information in general.
Editorial: My Concern About How Travel, Miles and Points Are Reported
When The Gate was launched almost 13 years ago, it joined the ranks of one of the pioneering weblogs in the travel, miles and points space. For me, the primary focus was to continue what I had been doing for what is now almost 17 years on FlyerTalk: exchanging information and helping others get the most out of travel, miles and points — to earn some money on the side doing what I enjoyed was a welcomed bonus — and unlike some others who all but abandoned FlyerTalk to concentrate on the success of their weblogs and award miles services, I still visit there every single day and still post there.
Since that time, several weblogs have become wildly successful — and, frankly, I am glad that they achieved their goals beyond their wildest dreams. What bothers me is how those goals were achieved — as well as what is currently happening pertaining to journalism in general.
I decided long ago not to promote credit cards because I felt that pronouncing how you can “travel for free” is disingenuous at best. Travel is not free. Travel has never been completely free in terms of cost — even in the best of times and in the “good old days.” Although it may not be you, someone is paying for that “free” travel.
Even worse are the stories of readers of those articles who decided to take the plunge and acquire those credit cards — giving the writer of the article a nice commission for selling the product — only to earn those tens of thousands of points but paying far more in interest payments than the cost of those points or of the “free” travel in the first place. I did not want to be associated with that chain of shared irresponsibility. If I ever decide to promote credit cards in the future, I plan on including a clear disclaimer pertaining to financial responsibility and culpability — which to me is not really all that much different from articles which promote gambling or drinking. I likely left a lot of money on the table over the years as the result of my decision; but at least I can put my head to my pillow at night and sleep soundly.
The main reason why I have not promoted credit cards for a commission is because I did not want any outside entity to affect or control the editorial content of The Gate for the sake of money — and thus forsaking you as a reader who seeks information. Although I have committed errors along the way — as any normal human being would do in the span of almost 13 years — I have strived to gain and earn what I believe is one of the most important things I can receive from you: trust.
Late in 2016, I hesitantly decided to include affiliate links here at The Gate so that I can earn some extra money — but I vowed to myself that I would not let them interfere with the editorial content of the articles which I write. The latest example is this article pertaining to my criticizing IHG Rewards Club for its most recent Accelerate promotion — despite the fact that InterContinental Hotels Group is an affiliate partner of The Gate.
Also, when I see offers by affiliate companies which do not seem to be all that great, I typically ignore them and do not include those links in my articles, as I am usually rather selective about that. Exceptions to my policy include offers which I may not necessarily be interested in participating — but might be of interest to you.
I do not want to simply parrot the euphemistic musings of public relations departments and disguise them as articles here at The Gate. That is not my job. I hold myself accountable to you — not to corporate entities. If I see something with which I disagree or if there is something which might potentially affect you negatively, I strive to include that in the articles I write — not to bad-mouth them; but rather that I provide information for them to improve the products and services which they offer to you.
The good companies understand my philosophy and continue to work with me; the not-so-good companies disassociate themselves from me, take their toys, and go home.
The End of Journalism As We Know It?
Unless writing is nothing more than a hobby or a side job, no entity can be supported primarily by the views of readers and clicks for advertising. Creative methods must be conjured to supplement the income — whether via subscriptions, affiliate links, or outright selling custom items. For example, one idea which I am actually considering is creating a line of products which feature some of my best photographs here at The Gate.
Many major media outlets have indeed been feeling the pressure for quite some time. For example, you no longer can read a single article from The Wall Street Journal without first paying for a subscription.
Numerous news outlets — such as The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — only permit a few free articles per month to readers who are not subscribers…
…and some respected entities have resorted to what may be considered little more than begging — such as The Guardian — while simultaneously striving to keep articles available free of charge to all readers.
Speaking of Bloomberg, here is what I consider a disturbing excerpt from this article proclaiming that public relations jobs are booming while newspapers are dying as written by Alexandre Tanzi and Shelly Hagan:
Employment for public relations specialists will expand to 282,600 in 2026, up 9 percent from 2016, according to projections from the Labor Department. Meanwhile, jobs for reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts are forecast to decline 9 percent to 45,900 over the same period.
For the news business, that would extend already sizable declines. Newsroom employment fell 23 percent to 88,000 from 2008 to 2017, with the number of newspapers dropping 45 percent to 39,000, according to a Pew Research Center study.
The article proclaims that “Public relations jobs exceeded those of reporters by more than six-to-one last year, up from less than two-to-one 20 years ago, according to data from the U.S. Census” and that “Journalists seeking work after being squeezed out of shrinking newsrooms often turn to public relations.”
I personally know quite a few journalists who have since left their jobs at respected news outlets — including the Associated Press, USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal — to work at the public relations and corporate communications divisions of airlines and lodging companies; as well as at certain profitable entities which launched as mere weblogs only several years ago.
Why?
A number of reasons come to mind: better salary, more benefits, and greater job security are only three of those reasons. Does this mean that those journalists have sold out and compromised their own integrities for the sake of a perceived better career and a brighter future? Perhaps — and then again, maybe not. The answer really depends on which perspective you view: do you perceive it as the price of compromising objectivity for producing biased — and even manipulated — content; or does a journalist understandably have to do whatever it takes to keep a roof over his or her head and feed the family?
What you may not know is that everyone who writes articles at BoardingArea receives a monthly e-mail message from Randy Petersen — who is the founder of BoardingArea — with updates and statistics. For example, April of 2019 was the best month yet in the history of BoardingArea in terms of numerous metrics, which includes 15,845,058 readers for that month alone — but although BoardingArea has been doing relatively well overall, he repeatedly points out in each e-mail message the dire state of advertising and traditional news media elsewhere in recent years. It is not always pleasant to read; but his information is supported by articles such as the aforementioned one from Bloomberg.
My Own Experience — and What I Would Like to Do
Despite art being my primary interest, I published my own “newspaper” for the street on which I lived while growing up in Brooklyn when I was barely 10 years of age. I gathered my own news stories; wrote my own articles; created a comic strip; and even solicited paid advertising. Once finished, I personally delivered each issue to paid subscribers. I even eventually recruited a couple of friends as part of my “staff”.
I took a journalism class in the special high school for art which I attended in Manhattan — my teacher was Mrs. Gluckman — and excelled in it. I was on the staff of the school newspapers in both high school and college; and I was active in the video department in high school. Just after graduating college, I worked at a local weekly newspaper in Brooklyn — twice — as an art director, columnist and reporter while launching my career in the graphic arts industry; and I was eventually employed by a trade magazine in New York…
…yet you will never hear me call myself a journalist — I do not consider myself one — but I have always had the utmost respect for the profession, which is why I am saddened with the aforementioned latest developments.
Still, I would like to write more articles and produce more audio and video programs with original information — as well as do in-depth investigative stories which uncover valuable findings to readers — but with a staff of one and working with limited resources, that is virtually impossible to do. I have even reached out to various entities — including those in the newspaper and television news industries — to partner with me and do a joint venture on uncovering the hidden truths pertaining to travel, miles and points…
…but, sadly, to no avail as of the time this article was written. I remain optimistic, though.
Summary
I am concerned more and more every day that the almighty dollar is what dictates corporate propaganda to be disguised as impartial news; is what causes the egregiously wild spin of a significant devaluation as promoting an “enhancement” which you have supposedly “asked for”; is what attempts to sell rather than to fairly report on a constructive basis; is what condones headlines that are blatant “click bait”; is what causes marketing and sales entities to be falsely perceived as legitimate sources of news and information; and is how information — mediocre or otherwise — is generally disseminated these days.
More than ever, we need to be better informed and more educated pertaining to the information with which we are constantly bombarded, as the plethora of tentacles of corporate propaganda seems to increasingly be deceptively passed off as legitimate and objective news. We need to know what information is actually worth our time and effort reading. We need to better help each other towards enacting mutually beneficial situations, as opposed to those who only seek to blatantly enrich themselves — often at our expense…
…but unfortunately, there is only so much that I can do — and that is where you come in. Please tell me your frank thoughts in the Comments section below as part of what I hope to be an ongoing discussion. Should we be concerned as to how the dissemination of information has morphed in recent years to more sensationalistic topics which are funded by vested entities whose subjective interests seem to be more motivated by profits than by genuinely helping readers and providing you with valuable information which you can use?
All photographs ©2014 and ©2019 by Brian Cohen.
