Foreign Media Want Red Envelopes Too?

Just finished a training session I volunteered to do for the PR team at Ogilvy Beijing on dealing with the foreign media, since I used to be part of it. I was asked about basic differences between foreign reporters and Chinese reporters, and with some equivocation spoke of the "ethics gap," citing as a mild example the "travel money" any business throwing a press conference is expected to cough up to attending Chinese reporters--usually 300 RMB. Foreign reporters, of course, have rigid ethical standards: most won't even let you buy 'em lunch, and will certainly refuse the hongbao, right?

Wrong. A couple of the women in session piped up: "What do we do when the foreign media demand red envelopes?" Apparently, in more than one instance, reporters from western television news stations (who I'll prudently avoid naming) hounded these poor PR women for money at press events."Why do they get them and we don't?" they demanded. The women were pretty worked up as we discussed this.

What to do? I told them they should politely tell them that it's our understanding that your boss would fire your greedy ass just for asking.

Full disclosure: Occasionally, there's schwag that's just too good to pass up. I'm only human. Never taken a hongbao but I was at the launch party for Google in Beijing when they revealed their new Chines name, Guge (谷歌), and they were giving the Chinese press these awesome Google Lava Lamps. I had to have one. Fortunately, some Chinese reporter left his, so I snagged it. But then, in the small session with Eric Schmidt that followed,  I had to endure the disapproving glances of the likes of Phil Pan (Washington Post), Joe McDonald (AP), Jason Dean (WSJ) and Mure Dickie (FT). Those guys just wanted a Lava Lamp too, I'm sure.

Comments

[Phil Pan]

kaiser, tsk tsk, but i suppose you could argue it's ok to take a cheap lava lamp from google given all the revenue they've taken from newspapers.

[Zhang Di]

haha,,,chinese pr set up two sign-up stands...the one for chinese reporters is offering travel money together with poorly written press releases, and i queued here. I saw the other stand for foreign media offer Chinese silk...

[Will]

Interesting. I don't think we've ever run into that situation. I do the foreign media relations training at my agency and I give our local staff a pretty clear edict: No hongbao for foreign media. So far, no impecunious western hack has got up our nose for shortchanging them. I'll have to consider telling my staff what to do if this situation arises (although it would be unusual for us to have a foreign media event without me or another senior foreigner on hand). I can't even recall giving good schwag, but it's probably because my clients just aren't that glamorous.

But I figure with media consolidating, journalists being laid off and salaries probably under pressure that it's only a matter of time. Wait until News Corp or Tribune or somebody else figures out that they can use PR firms to subsidize their foreign correspondents' salaries. It'll become official policy, although there might have to be a little lobbying first about that troublesome FCPA. Then some poor schlep like me (but with even thinner ethics) will have to explain it to the world.

Imagine the press conference, and this exchange between a journalist from a righteous organization not participating in this scheme and some poor flack not unlike me:

Journalist: "Doesn't this completely undermine the independence of the media, erode it's value as the fourth estate, and raise grave doubts as to the veracity of news coverage originating from China?"

Flack: "On the contrary, we see this as a public service and net positive for the news media. Budgets for foreign bureaus are under pressure and were pleased to do our part to ensure that people overseas can continue to have access to the high quality China correspondence that they have grown to expect over the years."

Note how the negative question was not repeated back to the journalist, but turned into a key message delivery opportunity. Suh-moothe! (Ducks for cover...)

[richard]

I've never had a foreign journalist ask for a red envelope, and several have told me they were not allowed to accept them. This post is really surprising. I'm sure it's true, it's just strange.

[The Dog]

When in China....

How is a red envelope any different than the kind of networking perks that reporters recieve in the west?

At least Chinese reporters are honest about what they do... "Give us money for coverage". Western reporters hide behind covert schemes to hide the kick-backs they get from huge corporations.

I say more foreign reporters in China should be asking for those Red Envelopes...it sure beats a dumb lava lamp.