Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebot
All paid shill ads unfortunately...I worked behind the scenes on some of this stuff before, a well kept secret not well known to the public. It's a bit of an eye opener.
You will understand my hate for the media a little more today  |
This is obviously not the point here, but no, they aren't.
Avenue's Top 40 Under 40 is nomination based and not a pay-to-play award, and David Parker (who wrote the Herald article) does not do paid stories, he writes of-interest pieces on businesses and business owners. You can certainly pitch an interesting story to him, but it's not simply a matter of handing out cash.
Calgary Herald also marks sponsored content.
If you had worked behind the scenes on this stuff before, you would know that. Source: I currently do, as my actual job, including work with Redpoint (Avenue), Postmedia, and David Parker.
The OGM one is probably pay-to-play though, if I had to guess by the site (have no experience with them).
Whatever he achieved was either legit enough to earn some recognition, or he's enough of a con-artist to fool others into giving it to him. But not everything is paid for.