The King of New Media
Take the time to read (yet another) Wired piece about Jason Calacanis, the man who had the balls to accuse me of being a "sell out" to Siemens while I was the editor of Gizmodo, but not the good graces to accuse me directly, instead taking it as an opportunity to put himself on a level with Nick Denton.
It's been almost a year since he made that post on his own Weblog (one of many personal blogs counted towards the Weblogs, Inc. claimed number of blogs), after which Jason deleted almost every response from fellow journalists defending my (and Gizmodo's) integrity.
Here's the part of the story that Calacanis left out: Siemens approached Engadget with a junket before they approached Gizmodo. Engadget refused the free flight and hotel—not because of a strong 'anti-junket' policy, but because Siemens refused to purchase a large ad buy on Engadget, as recommended by Engadget/Weblogs, Inc. so that they could hide the expenses of the flight and hotel in the money they earned from the ad buy while still claiming journalistic integrity. I know this because Siemens employees and clients told me as much after reading Calacanis's blog post about Gizmodo.
There was a good debate to be had about whether or not blog writers should accept junkets (even if they publicly and clearly disclaim the terms), but that wasn't the debate Calacanis wanted to have. Instead, he decided it would be better to attack Gizmodo for taking the junket that Engadget would only have taken with an additional ad buy—and by proxy, me.
I still haven't gotten an apology from Calacanis and I expect I never will. (I would imagine that he's been too busy rooting through his own pubic mane looking for something to fellate to realize that he actually did anything wrong.) But until that time, it's always my pleasure to see that others can see through his back-stabbing bluster and expose him for the piss-ant, ego-drunk ankle biter that he is.
I'll be at CES, Calacanis. Feel free to buy me a drink and tell me you're sorry for publicly accusing me of the very thing that Engadget tried to pull off without their readers' knowledge.
Siemens came to both of looking for editorial coverage in exchange for a junket. They were very clear to both Nick and I when they approached both of us--give us stories we fly you out and put you up. They sent us both the exact proposal.
I took the proposal away from our editorial group, which is not allowed to engage in any sponsor related discussions. I told Siemens that we don't trade editorial for anything, but if they wanted they could sponsor Engadget. There would be no promise of editorial payback, the value they would get from sponsoring Engadget would be the value every other advertisers gets: being associated with the #1 consumer electronics blog in the world.
Any other major publishers would do the same--this is how the top tier publications handle such offers: we referrer them to advertising.
Nick took the deal immediately and on the first day Gizmodo did seven stories on Siemens. They were the first posts from CeBIT and we both know it looked really, really bad.
I'm sure you know that every major publication (i.e. WSJ, NYT, etc) has a policy of not accepting junkets. Do journalists like you--or the ones in Europe where junkets are part of the business--have no integrity? Not necessarily, but that is how it looks to the readers. That is why I implored your boss Nick to join me in taking the no-junkets position with major advertisers. Like many things Nick and I didn't see eye-to-eye on this one and he took what I considered the low road.
I don't know you, so I didn't pass any judgement on you. Rather, I took on your boss and his company. I don't think you were involved in making the decision to take the junket--were you? I'm sure this was Nick's call right?
Frankly, It's unfair for you to pay for the sins of your father--so to speak.
best,
Jason
Jason,
I was the one handling the negotiations between Engadget, Gizmodo and Siemens. Your version stated above correct. You did refer Siemens to advertising BUT you did agree to fly someone out there out of that advertising money. So it is, what is is: An intransparent junket. Worse, you were greedy: You wanted $20.000 and you wanted to camouflage the deal.
Felix Petersen
It should be (again) clarified that there was no "trading editorial" deal beyond the obvious acknowledgment that I would write unedited, unfiltered news about Siemens' products as one of the many exhibitors at CeBIt. Siemens was the first company to show off their products at CeBit—a full day before other exhibitors—a fact that many other journalists tried to point out on Calacanis' blog attack about Gizmodo, but whose comments were deleted for "profanity."
When I (not Nick Denton) made the decision to accept the junket to CeBit, I did so because I knew that if I didn't I wouldn't be able to cover the show for Gizmodo. Rather than worry that my posts might look "really, really bad," I counted on the trust of my readers by being transparent about every aspect of the arrangement.
Yet Calacanis used that transparency to launch his attack, despite the fact that he had attempted to broker a far more unscrupulous deal for Weblogs, Inc. and Engadget himself. Sounds like bullshit to me—but maybe I'm not privy to the ins and outs of blog ethics.
http://www.calacanis.com/2004/11/17/blog-ethics-committee-blog-publishers-association-and-the/
We offered Siemens to be one of two or three sponsors of a CeBIT *section* (which is what they wanted--promotion around CeBIT). We also offered them to be a sponsor of the entire site or Weblogs Inc. Network. We were very clear there was no trading of editorial for sponsorship--which is what they were demanding. We both know they demanded editorial for the junket--they were very aggressive about this.
That being said, I believe you when you say you wrote the posts without influence and because Siemens opened up the show--but we both know it just doesn't look that way to the public. That is the issue I was trying to make your boss Nick.
If a sponsor comes on aggressive like Siemens did--demanding editorial coverage for hotels/flights/advertising--it's my job (and Nick's) to step in reset their expectations. To explain to them that they can't buy the editorial, but they can buy the ad space. That's what CEOs/publishers do, and that is what I did here. Good publishers have the responsibility of protecting the editors from this kind of assault and the way we do it is shift advertisers from trying to *buy* the editorial to *supporting* the publication and letting their products rise and fall on their own merit. This is in the best interest of everyone. If Gizmodo takes junkets from Siemens people will always think about that every time they read a story about Siemens.
Now, it's fine for a publication to have someone sponsor a section or editorial feature--especially if they are one of two or three sponsors. If you want to say that every advertiser in publication is buying editorial we both know that's absurd. In fact, our editors find out who our advertisers are at the same time as the public. That's our policy--the bloggers are not involved with the sponsors. The fact that you made this decision not Nick is another bad sign--the editors shouldn't be accepting anything from the advertisers.
It's not common for publications to accept flights/hotels in exchange for editorial coverage--which is what they offered. Now, I do hear this is a common practice among smaller publications in Europe and some in the United States.
Bottom line: junkets are really bad for bloggers/journalists. It makes bloggers look like they're in the pockets of advertisers and it creates the appearance of impropriety. If we're going to be respected as a medium we should pay our way in the world--not look to our subjects to jet set us around the world.
In terms of deleting comments I do delete ones that are vulgar. If you want to post this exchange to my site you can feel free. I'm all about an open discussion about this topic.
Question for you: If you had your choice would you rather publishers pay to send bloggers to shows or would you rather have your sponsors paying your way?
What we both know is that you have no idea what Siemens asked of Gizmodo during CeBit, but I'm happy to tell you—like I told the readers—again.
Siemens asked that we cover their new product launches alongside all of the other new product launches, without any special editorial bent or bias. If they asked for skewed editorial coverage from Engadget, I don't know about—just as you don't have any idea of what they asked from Gizmodo.
I don't recall Engadget sending out a team to cover CeBit after Siemens rejected your counteroffer. What's worse? Taking a junket to gain access to a show you couldn't have otherwise covered or to base your editorial schedule around the willingness of advertisers to pay for it?
Believe it or not, I'm not advocating the merit of junkets at the moment. That's a debate for someone else to start. My point was, and continues to be, that you attacked my integrity as an excuse to play up your own white-washed internet valor, when the truth is you were only planning on sending a team to Germany to cover CeBit if Siemens paid for it on the sly.
Also, junkets aren't nearly as uncommon in American journalism as you would like to pretend they are for the sake of argument. You know what is uncommon? Taking a junket and then publicly disclaiming it to the readers. Far less common than publications taking money from advertisers with a wink and a nod, it would seem.
I don't really know any of the parties involved, but I did consider myself an avid gizmodo reader around the time Joel was editor (and still read it for that matter). And I remember these posts about CeBit, and I can tell you that personally I thought he was very upfront about the situation and while he did 'cover' siemens prominently, he didn't give them any special treatment. I seem to remember the same snarky/funny comments that he would give any of the silly new products that come out at big electronics shows. I thought it was cool that siemens would allow him to cover cebit on their dime and not really expect a gushing review. My two cents.
I remember this snafu only hazily. what i can say for sure, is that Joel is way hotter than Mr. Calcanis. The ironic fu manchu, the hipster finesse, i totally plan on seducing him with Rogue's Chocolate Stout and The Sea and Cake. (anytime baby)