Brendiver's World

Busted!!

Remember this post about my 'gushing and glowing' letter to Scuba Diving magazine?

Well, my 'good wheeze' is highly unlikely to ever get published - I was wondering how long it would take to get discovered.

Just received from Nick Lucey in the comments section of the above post:

"That's right, Brendan. As you say, "keep writing."

Nick Lucey
Editor at Large, Scuba Diving Magazine"

Outstanding. Guess my letters won't be welcome anymore?

Keep writing...

Brendan

Now here's a good wheeze - an update

I posted the below a while back and unfortunately, my gushing and glowing letter for Scuba Diving magazine didn't get published - perhaps the mention of being in Europe wasn't a good move?

Anyway - their letters page this month was still full of gushing and glowing compliments and the one that won the Scubapro kit bag was one of the most sweetly sickening I've ever read, how his 3 year old daughter brings him the magazine every month. This month even she noticed the new format, "Daddy! Daddy! This one is bigger too!" Oh Dear - vom time!

The below is my original letter, you never know, they may be saving it for next month?

And below it, my original post.

Keep writing...

Brendan

I’ve just picked up the latest copy of Scuba Diving from a newsstand in England – I thought it would make a change from the same old stuff I read in the British diving magazines. And all I can say is “Wow – what a good read!”

The photographs are stunning and the advice on flying and diving might just explain why, on my last dive trip, I went down with some kind of bug after getting into the water just hours after two long haul flights. Dehydrated, fatigued, that was me.

The only thing I’d pick you up on though, out of the “27 Must See Destinations” you didn’t feature anywhere in the Red Sea, the diving playground for Europeans. Come on Scuba Diving, how about some coverage for your cousins over the water? Maybe even an article on the great diving on the West Coast of Scotland? It might be cold water, but it can certainly match what the rest of the world has to offer!

Steve Jones, Manchester, England   

Thinking about the ridiculous contents of Scuba Diving magazine's letters pages I've come up with what may turn out to be a good old wheeze.

And I might even get to 'win' a wet suit, dive mask, dive bag - whatever freebie the office has lying around gathering dust.

The aim? Get a letter published in Scuba Diving, one that is so 'gushing' they won't be able to resist publishing it.

I'll keep you posted.

Keep writing....

Brendan

Mischievous journalistic behaviour

In a previous post I've described how a five day dive trip to Bermuda set me back about £10.

Welcome to the world of familiarisation (often referred to as 'fam') / press trips, where a location's tourism board pays for everything in the hope it will result in an article or feature about the destination. When I say pay, it might not cost them that much. Depending on the airline they may have a set allocation of seats for press and PR purposes, hotels are normally keen to put you up and dive centres, when they hear you are from a diving magazine, will want to show off their facilities. 

Generally 'fam' trips are escorted to the extent that every minute of your time is planned out. You'll be exposed to numerous hotels, dive centres, restaurants and bars - I've even been on trips where breakfasts outside of the hotel have been timetabled in.

I've not been on a 'fam' trip where there have been more than eight journalists and fortunately on each occasion they've been a fun lot to be around. However, although these trips have been quite enjoyable, they're still a form of work. You're there to do a job, to get the story and write it up to meet the editor's needs.

The question is - once you have been on one of these trips, to what extent are you beheld to the sponsors? Especially if they are an advertiser with the magazine?

In respect of this question I've posted an ethical dilemma on wetpixel's forum - you can follow it here.

The dilemma posed is in respect of whether you should write glowing reports about a destination just because they are sponsoring the trip, or are big advertisers with the magazine, or both.

I believe the article that came out of the 'fam' trip to Bermuda will demonstrate   both my stance and that of DIVER magazine, however, I wouldn't try and pull this kind of stunt without first agreeing it with the editor. I seem to remember how Bermuda Tourism stopped advertising in DIVER a couple of months following publication - coincidence I'm quite sure.

Keep writing...

Brendan