Editor's note: This article first ran in the February issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.
DENVER (BRAIN) — An industry email that got into the wrong hands late last year turned into something like the Pentagon Papers for some journalists. They saw the communication — between a PinkBike.com ad salesman and a potential ad buyer at Trek’s Bontrager division — as confirmation of something they had long suspected but could never prove: that some bike media outlets tie ad sales directly to the nature of the content they pro- duce.
The email, dated Sept. 6, was a $25,000 ad proposal for Bontrager for 2015 and included a list of 2015 Bontrager-related editorial features and social media actions, with links to similar features that ran in 2014.
PinkBike’s CEO and its tech editor told BRAIN the list is not what it has been pur- ported to be in the social media outpour- ing that came after the email became public. They note that the email does not promise that the articles on the list will be published or that product reviews will be positive. The list is not defined at all. It appears under a subhead that says, simply, “Bontrager and PinkBike.”
“The assumption was, ‘Hey, you are go- ing to get a review and it’s going to be posi tive,’ which is not the case,” said Karl Burkat, the CEO and sales director at the British Columbia-based website. PinkBike.com is likely the most highly trafficked advertiser-supported bike site in the world. Burkat said the list of items in the email was akin to an editorial calendar — a schedule of content that the editorial department has planned. Advertising sales staff at most publications and websites (including BRAIN) use such calendars as sales tools.
Others didn’t see the list that way. Maurice Tierney, publisher of DirtRag and Bicycle Times, received the email inadvertently and, after sitting on it for a few weeks, weighed in about it in a blog posting in December.
“Much like in the more serious and important global political discourse happening in God-Blessed America and the world right now, the bike journalism field is following a steeper and steeper fall-line trail downhill. Pay to play. Where rather than conveying honest, objective opinions, so-called jour- nalists write what corporations pay them to write,” Tierney wrote.
Tierney included a redacted version of the email with his blog post, with PinkBike and Bontrager’s names blacked out.
Tierney’s blog post quickly set off a social media tempest, especially among cycling journalists for other publications who were dismayed to see apparent evidence of a viola- tion of “church and state” — the separation of publications’ advertising departments from their editorial departments.
Tierney’s blog post appeared the day prior to a bike media event in Denver attended by about a dozen cycling journalists from sev- eral publications (not including PinkBike). The blog was the prime topic of conversation.
“I was a little surprised but mostly saddened to see that proposal, to see editorial so explicitly bought and sold,” said Ben Delaney, one of the journalists at the Denver event. Delaney is the North American edi- tor for BikeRadar.com and the former editor in chief for VeloNews. He’s also a former BRAIN staffer. “Most editors and writers I know want people to believe what we write. Arrangements like this give cynics ammunition,” Delaney said.
PinkBike technical editor Richard Cunningham said Tierney’s blog “assumed the worst” about the ad proposal email. He said the blog and the ensuing social chatter have unfairly tainted the reputation of the Pink- Bike staff.
“This is the type of scar that editors never heal from. It will just get better but it’s always going to be something that people bring up,” Cunningham said.
PinkBike’s Burkat also said that Tierney was standing on shaky ground in writing the blog. He noted that Tierney, who is involved in ad sales for his magazines, also occasion- ally writes articles and product reviews. And DirtRag’s advertising sales manager, Trina Haynes, writes product reviews too, includ- ing a review of a Raleigh bike in a recent issue.
“If that’s not a violation of church and state, I don’t know what is,” Burkat said.
Tierney had little response. “Guilty as charged, I guess,” he said. “When we started the magazine, it was just me and my part- ner and we both did everything, so there’s a lot of gray area. I will say that I never meant to imply [in the blog post] that any jour- nalists are doing anything less than their best. I didn’t mean to offend anyone who is trying to do solid journalism. Most of us aspire to that.”
As for the ad proposal, Trek didn’t bite. “I typically do not reveal which publications I have a contract with, but in this case I will say that I do not have an agreement with PinkBike for 2015,” Bontrager marketing director Michael Browne told BRAIN in an email.
BRAIN also asked Browne — a former DirtRag editor — if in his experience ad contracts are often tied directly to editorial content.
“I don’t know how Maurice runs his business today, and out of courtesy and respect to my existing and potential partners, I prefer not to outline publicly the practices that I am aware of personally and by word-of-mouth,” he said. “I do think that guaranteeing a return on investment is a wise business strategy. I think most business owners would agree tothat.”
