For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" -- Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it's a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff." The offer -- which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters -- is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival. And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" -- Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors.
The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it's a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff."
The offer -- which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters -- is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.
And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.
Big Pay Packages Return to Wall Street Compensation on Track to Soar as Earnings Recover From Crisis; 'Like It's 2007 Again' Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well. Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (...) Whether the higher payouts occur will depend on whether Wall Street earnings continue to recover from last year's bruising losses on troubled assets and bad trading bets. If the market's resilience since early March fades or a new crisis erupts, then securities firms would likely set aside far less to pay their employees than they did in this year's first two quarters. Firms can set aside money for compensation and then decide not to pay it later. Still, the comeback in compensation so far this year shows how hard it is for Wall Street to break its old habits. Repaying last year's capital infusions from the government freed Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other big financial firms from curbs on compensation. Meanwhile, non-U.S. banks that didn't get Troubled Asset Relief Program funds are becoming increasingly aggressive. (...) "I'm seeing deals like it's 2007 again," says Steven Eckhaus, an executive-employment lawyer at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York. He's worked on several deals recently that featured eight-figure guaranteed pay packages stretched over one to three years.
Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well.
Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
(...)
Whether the higher payouts occur will depend on whether Wall Street earnings continue to recover from last year's bruising losses on troubled assets and bad trading bets. If the market's resilience since early March fades or a new crisis erupts, then securities firms would likely set aside far less to pay their employees than they did in this year's first two quarters. Firms can set aside money for compensation and then decide not to pay it later.
Still, the comeback in compensation so far this year shows how hard it is for Wall Street to break its old habits. Repaying last year's capital infusions from the government freed Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other big financial firms from curbs on compensation. Meanwhile, non-U.S. banks that didn't get Troubled Asset Relief Program funds are becoming increasingly aggressive.
"I'm seeing deals like it's 2007 again," says Steven Eckhaus, an executive-employment lawyer at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York. He's worked on several deals recently that featured eight-figure guaranteed pay packages stretched over one to three years.
Money buys access. And access brings you more ways to earn top money. What's not to like? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The press is more corrupt than any other group inside the Beltway. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
And I'll add: I'll be plenty happy when all of the majors newspapers are driven into bankruptcy.
I wouldn't hold my breath. I can't remember the last time I saw a broke lobbyist. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
And this is going to lose them quite a few subscriptions, I imagine. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
But if you lose (say) 20,000 readers, your advertisers aren't going to be pleased.
Not sure how many they'll wind up losing, and it'd probably be tough to tell anyway, because the WaPo's been hot no the heels of the NYT in terms of increasing suckitude, financially.
(shrug) I can tell ya they won't be getting me back. My subscription ran out a while ago, and since then it's gone from really stupid Village rag to foaming-at-the-mouth neocon psychosis. Now it's foaming-at-the-mouth neocon psychosis (with added corruption!). Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
who's the dick now ? keep to the Fen Causeway
What a joke. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
