How many times has this London Fashion Intern been told that "interning at a fashion magazine can't be that bad, considering all the freebies you get". Sure, I've had a few. A lipgloss here, a book there, a voucher somewhere else. Certainly not enough to make up for the lack of pay, and a lot less than the editors are getting.
Liz Jones, whose Daily Mail column no one reads but everyone picks on, famously got fired from Marie Claire for publishing a list of all the freebies she'd received, as she explains in an interview with The Independent's Deborah Ross
One of the reasons she was sacked from Marie Claire, she says, was because she listed all the fashion freebies she'd been offered that month, "which included a week on a yacht in Capri from Todd's, the handbag people".
Her rationale for doing so was that
"If a Westminster reporter took money from the Government or a football reporter took money from a club, it would be a scandal," she adds. That's true, I say, and you're dead right, I say, but you must see how it's going to get people's backs up. Say stuff like that, and the game's up for everyone. She can see that, she says.
Fashion journalists get freebies. The higher you get, the more you get. However, they are more likely to come in the form of product samples than served on a Mediterranean boat. From my own experience freebies aren't that common and don't always influence the journalist into writing a positive review of a product. Again, I blame The Devil Wears Prada for getting people to think that working at a magazine means you can freely pick anything out of the fashion cupboard.
Should writers accept them? In an ideal world, of course they wouldn't. The products to try and review would be purchased on the publication's budget. One of the problems of the industry, however, is that even when you get a J**, the pay is low, and the temptations numerous. As annoyed as I am by Liz Jones' writings, I believe that her decision to make public the freebies she'd received was right. Magazine websites could start blogs on the freebies they get. It would be an entertaining, possibly interactive way to come clean. It would also give readers another glimpse of the behind-the-scenes of making a magazine, something they generally crave.
I will leave you with another picture of Capri. How I wish this were the view I had from my window! Have a good Sunday.
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