The HT question

TATTLE

Has "The Hindustan Times" launched a service that offers editorial coverage for a price, on the lines of Medianet its arch rival "The Times of India" launched two years ago? Talk to different people and you arrive at different answers.

Three months ago, a "Hindustan Times" executive shot off letters to a few public relations (PR) agencies detailing the newly launched media access programme that gave advertisers the opportunity to get coverage in the paper as well as on its website "in the form of advertisements, stories or campaigns."

Ice World has a copy of the letter which states: "The programme has many advantages. Besides assured access and visibility, it also gives agencies the opportunity to work with "Hindustan Times" journalists to broadbase campaigns and ensure greater impact."

The letter describes the "operating areas" for PR agencies and goes on to list subjects that can be promoted through the media access programme "� tourist destinations, handicrafts and textiles, fashion, art, social welfare issues, states and cities as tourist destinations, among others. Hard news was out of the purview of the programme, the letter states.

So does the service exist, considering that a letter does? "No," says a senior "Hindustan Times" executive. The letter was an individual's initiative and the person was removed from the post, he adds.

"The HT management is completely against such practices and will not offer such a service. It is an old letter and some copies may be floating around. We had clarified our stand even earlier," he says.

But at least one PR agency claims to have used the service in the recent past, while others say that there are grey areas and that even they do not have a clear picture of what is happening.

Considering that the newspaper devoted valuable column centimetre space to condemn its rival's initiative, in all probability HT has no such service.