Editorial Intelligence: ‘a disgusting idea’?

Posted by Martin Stabe on 3 April 2006 at 09:42
Tags: BBC, Daily Mail, Ethics, Journalism, Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times

The Sunday Times yesterday reported on a row — sorry, “catfight”, among leading media figures over whether journalists and PRs should hobnob in a forum sponsored by big organisations.Some journalists, it seems, are not impressed by Editorial Intelligence, PR guru Julia Hobsbawm’s “information and networking club” which seeks to bring together spinmeisters and leading columnists.

The Sunday Times story appears to have been provoked by a Guardian column in which Christina Odone described EI as “PR meets journalism in Caribbean freebies, shameless backscratching and undeclared interests”. Institutionalising the “already rather dubious relationship” between hacks, flacks and the organsiations the latter represent, Odone wrote, “is just bad news.”

Odode is not alone, it seems. The Sunday Times reports that BBC has forced Barney Jones and Kirsty Lang to quit the Editorial Intelligence advisory board, after learning that they would be paid £1,000 to hold the position and £200 to attend its seminars.
Melanie Phillips has refused to get involved and saying “I don’t think that journalists and PRs should be in a jolly boat together.” Rod Liddle described the project as “a disgusting idea which suggests journalists might be up for hire.” John Lloyd also resigned, following his appointment to head the Reuters journalism institute at Oxford — but Matthew d’Ancona is less concerned about his membership.

Editorial Intelligence sells its corporate subscribers access to an online directory of profiles of and columnists, along with its quarterly magazine and access to networking events to bring PRs and journalists together.

Are Odone, Liddle and Phillips right — is this something journalists should not get involved with?