How does one get a press pass? Whenever you go to a sporting event you see a section reserved for members of the press and generally in good seats. Do the media outlets pay for these seats or are they given free in exchange for media exposure. Can anyone call and say “I am from the Lemartel Gazette, I’d like a good seat and free shrimp” and get it or do only large media outlets qualify?
I used to conduct interviews for a radio show. One hour a week, weak little station at the far end of the dial; no one had ever heard of us. I got backstage passes all the time just by calling the record company and telling them I wanted to interview their artist for a radio show; only one ever wanted a letter on radio station letter head, and that was because I got greedy and asked for free videos. Some of these passes were designated as press passes, some were more specifically stage passes–usually with “all access” on them.
I have no idea how similar sports situations are. But see if you can make a contact at some small free weekly paper, and ask them if you can submit short descriptions (or whatever) of sports games. Then call the park and say you’re covering the game for Bob’s Used Car Weekly.
Give it a try.
Press passes – REAL press passes, not just one-event stage passes and such – are issued by the Police Department. At least that’s how it’s done here in NYC. A PP basically implies “this is my job, I’m a real member of the working press and I’m not a nut case with a history of phoning in bomb scares and reusing postage stamps.”
Among other things, a PP entitles you to cross a police line – that yellow plastic ribbon – without (too much) hassle. It is also acts as a sort-of standing security background check for other non-crimescene events because the coppers check your police records before they issue you one.
FYI, they don’t just give you one if you ask for it and have a clean record; you need documentation from the higher-ups of a credible newspaper or TV/radio station that you work for them and that they want you to have one. I suspect an application from some reporter of a mimeographed newsletter with a circulation of your nuclear family would not cut the mustard with the NYPD.
Darn, I thought this was a 3 Stooges question!
Here in Colorado, press passes and press plates (license plates for your car that you can stick in your window when you park at a special “press” parking spot, are issues by the Colorado Press Association. I never had a problem with my plates or my pass ever being questioned by a law enforcement person, fire fighter, or government employee.
Thank you for your answers, I was impressed that someone caught the stooges reference.
The question came out of an idea I had, I live near Washington DC and thought it might be interesting to go to a White House press conference or other official events. My idea: start a web site, claim to be an internet apply for a press pass, get one, reporter, post little stories of my experiences which no one will read and presto I am hobnobbing with interesting people, getting into sporting events free, and eating at shrimp buffets. Is this an anyway feasible or is it as stupid as its sounds?
I run an independent Computer Games webzine called Game Industry News. We get into ALL the cool game conferences and expos because of it. Last year I got to spend some time hobnobbing with Shigeru Miyamoto (sp?) and Sid Meier with that great press badge.
And we started this as a lark.
So it CAN be done!
Lemartel: expect to jump through double-extra hoops if you want to crash White House events.
Again, this may only be a reflection of NYPD paranoia, but the one time I had to go through the press credential rigamarole for a presidential event (Clinton speaking at a tribute to Jackie Robinson at Shea Staduim), it was much more harrowing than usual. I had to submit my name, my cameraman’s name and his assistant’s name to the Mayor’s Press Office in advance (who, I suspect, passed it to the NYPD). No substitutions allowed. And we had to present ID at the gate.
All that hassle and no shrimp – they just gave us a box lunch with a turkey sandwich.
Yes, you could do that, as long as you went through the right hoops with your state’s press organization. However, everywhere you go, people would hate you. The journalistic community is pretty close-knit, everyone reads everyone else’s stuff, and people would know what you were doing. We used to call people like that “media whores.” Don’t worry, though; you wouldn’t be the first one.