PressEthic

By definition, a licensing fee is a fee paid to the government for the privilege of being licensed to do something (such as sell liquor or practice medicine). But a fee to be mentioned in the news?

Buffalo News reporter Thomas Dolan discovered that a Buffalo agency paid $19,000 to a Florida production company to be featured in a segment on CNN's Headline News. The production company, Platinum Television Group, apparently charges a “licensing fee” for the production of a news story, which it then shops around to news agencies.

In an article, "All the 'News' That's Fit to Charge $19,000 For," Paul McLeary discusses Dolan’s discovery.

The stories about the prevalence of “fake news” just keep coming, and now it looks like CNN has been fingered by the Buffalo News as a news organization that runs paid content dressed up like an actual news report…Now there’s nothing wrong with an outside production group providing content to a news organization, but what is wrong with this picture is that Platinum Television Group is producing friendly pieces, for which it collects a fee, for CNN, without CNN ever acknowledging that it’s running what in effect is an infomercial for a particular company.

James Allen, the president of the Buffalo agency in question, initially denied paying for the story. He now admits and defends his actions, according to Dolan.

Allen insisted that the $19,000 payment played no role in how his agency was chosen for the broadcast and that the transaction is a bargain for the local agency because it will not pay for the costs to produce the segment. "I'm telling you we were chosen on merit," he said. Allen also expressed no concern that the final product, while appearing to be a feature news story, will be, effectively, paid advertising. "Who cares?" he said.

And what if a merit-worthy organization can't pay the licensing fee? Then apparently the group is suddenly no longer newsworthy. Dolan's article notes the story of a village in Libertyville, Illinois that was not featured in a program intended for an ABC Family Channel segment, "Best Places to Live" because, though it was deemed a good choice for the segment, the town could not pay the licensing fee.

Call me old-fashioned or naïve but I aspire for news to be relevant and important, not sold to the highest bidder.