Guaranteed Editorial Commissions: What are they, and Why are they Important?

So, when you hear something like “guaranteed editorial commission”, there’s always going to be a sense of scepticism attached. But here’s the thing: experienced PRs know when something’s a done deal. There’s a lot you can count on when you’ve got a great PR team on your side, and guaranteed editorial commissions are just one of them…

That is, if you can secure a commission in time…

Because, truth be told, it’s complicated. And expensive. And sometimes, you have to throw the rulebook out the window – risking it all for the promise of future coverage. But the payoff is totally worth it, and if you know how to play it, you’ll win more often than not.

Let’s break it all down, starting from the beginning.

A guaranteed editorial commission is an agreement where a PR professional (and their client) is guaranteed a piece of editorial press coverage (a commission) in return for providing a service of some kind.

And in travel PR, this is usually an organised press trip at the expense of the client.

For example, if a tour operator arranges a seven-night trip to Asia (flights included) for a journalist, then the PR would make it clear to the journalist that a guaranteed editorial commission is required in return. When the journalist is receiving something that is of significant value, it’s totally justified for the client to receive something of equivalent value in return.

A trip like this would cost the client a significant sum of money – so they’d expect high value press coverage in return. It’s the norm for this press coverage to be outlined exactly, and agreed upon in full, prior to confirmation of the trip.

This is very much an “I scratch your back and you scratch mine” situation; the travel brand provides a service, and the journalist promises to thank the client by providing guaranteed editorial coverage.

But at such an expense, you might be wondering if it’s even worth it.

At the end of the day, travel brands employ travel PR experts with one goal in mind: to secure press coverage.

Travel brands understand the importance of being seen in high quality publications – to increase brand awareness and share of voice among their competitors. Today, they also understand the value of increasing web traffic, social media attention and SEO rankings through links from major outlets.

And they rightly feel that it’s important that they’re guaranteed a return on their investment.

By investment, we don’t just mean the money they pay their PR agency, but the money they invest into the journalist for press trips, too.

Guaranteed editorial coverage helps clients get what they want. And sure, they want coverage, but they want to have some control over the nature of it. The PR’s job is to know their client inside out, including what their goal is, so the PR will liaise with the journalist to establish the specific angle and extent of coverage. For example, will the coverage be online only or in print, too? Will it be a dedicated piece of coverage or will other travel brands also be included in the piece? Will an image be published to accompany the article? It is also important to try find out when the coverage will appear, as this can align with certain strategic objectives, particularly around booking periods. Knowing the timeline for publication helps to plan accordingly to maximise the impact of the coverage on the target audience.

The PR will establish the exact extent of the coverage to ensure the client is happy with what they’re receiving in return.

With all this said, it's important to understand that travel brands (and PR teams) can't control what journalists ultimately write. This is crucial to acknowledge in any PR strategy. Journalists form their opinions based on personal experiences, whether that’s their stay at a hotel or their time at a destination. These experiences shape the tone and content of their writing, and it’s important to remember that reviews, by nature, are subjective and meant to build trust with readers.

Editorial coverage carries more weight because it reflects genuine opinions, not paid endorsements. If a brand seeks to fully control the message and narrative, then paid opportunities, such as advertorials, would be the way to go. However, with organic editorial, there's always an element of unpredictability, and that’s what gives the review authenticity.

But There’s another factor that needs to be considered in all of this; who does the journalist work for? Are they a staff writer, or a freelancer – and why does this matter?

It’s important to note the difference between freelance journalists and staff writers, especially when it comes to guaranteed editorial commissions.

Staff writers are journalists who work in-house, whether it be a glossy travel magazine like Condé Nast Traveller, or a leading newspaper like The Times or The Telegraph.

Freelance journalists work for themselves. They pitch to Editors who they (likely) have a relationship with, but as they’re freelance it means the publication needs to pay another party to get the story. When an Editor is granting a staff writer a commission, it’s not costing them anything because they’re employed at the publication – but when they’re granting a freelancer a commission, they’re allocating a budget to that journalist and their story.

All staff writers need is the green light from their Editor, so they’ll pitch the angle and story, and get permission to attend a trip in return for producing the coverage. This means that it’s typically a smoother and somewhat easier process to land a guaranteed editorial commission with staff writers. They’re pitching a story to their colleague, who they’re likely to be sitting in the same office with, so naturally it’s all a bit quicker to turn around as well.

On the subject of turnaround time, it’s also important to note that freelancers will usually shop around to get their confirmed commission. So, for example, if a journalist approaches The Times newspaper but they’re not interested, then the journalist will try The Telegraph – then maybe Condé Nast Traveller, and so on, until they get a bite.

This can take time and typically takes longer than when working with a staff writer.

But all of this doesn’t mean you should avoid working with a freelancer. We love working with freelancer writers – it’s in their best interest to secure as much coverage for your client as possible.

If a freelance journalist takes part in a trip hosted by a travel brand, they’ll be doing so in return for a guaranteed editorial commission. That means they’ll get paid by a publication for that one guaranteed editorial commission.

However, if after the trip they decide to approach other publications with alternate angles off the back of the trip, it means they’ll secure further commissions, and make more money from just that one trip.

And the travel brand gets more exposure, more links, more views – and more value for their investment. Good things come to those who wait… and put faith in freelance writers!

A big part of being a PR professional is having fantastic relationships with journalists. PRs have a list of journalists that they work with often and have great relationships with, and in these cases, trust is high and proof isn’t always needed.

But if a PR is working with a journalist they’ve never worked with before? They might want a little bit of a safety net to fall into. And in these cases, it’s perfectly normal to ask a journalist to provide what’s called a commission letter – a letter or email from their Editor, confirming the commission they’ve granted to the journalist in writing.

It’s normal practice to request this, so a journalist doesn’t usually mind providing a commission letter from their Editor.

Is it sometimes okay to work with journalists who don’t have a guaranteed commission?

Absolutely!

Relationships are everything in the world of PR. And that’s the beauty of employing a travel PR agency like Lemongrass; we have those relationships with important UK media – and we can quickly tell you whether or not it’s worth working with a journalist who doesn’t have a guaranteed editorial commission.

But why wouldn’t a journalist be able to get a guaranteed editorial commission? Isn’t that a red flag?

No – at least not always. Sometimes, a journalist might be super keen to join a group press trip, but there are only a few weeks to go until the trip and they know it’s going to be tricky to get a confirmed commission in such a short space of time.

Or, they’ve spoken with a publication already and they’ve said “oh, we’re not interested in that destination right now because we’ve featured it a lot recently, but perhaps we can revisit in six months time?”. In this example, it might be in the client’s interest to still host the journalist, based on the understanding that they will strive to secure a commission later down the line.

When it’s a journalist we’ve worked with before, and we have a great relationship with them, we feel confident to make a judgement on whether or not to go ahead. There have been occasions when we have recommended that a client hosts a journalist who doesn’t have a guaranteed editorial commission, because we trust it’ll pay off.

It is a risk, though… and that needs to be understood by all parties involved: the client, the PR, and the journalist – before confirming anything.

There are some journalists that wouldn’t want to join a trip without a commission, because they find it’s too much pressure to get something secured following the trip. They’d feel indebted to the travel brand if they were unsuccessful in placing a story, and would worry about damaging future opportunities.

But there are other journalists that like this approach – they really value and appreciate the trust. Being a freelance journalist can be rather difficult these days, so finding trust in a PR means that they make it their mission to secure coverage for the PR’s client.

A great freelance writer (who often writes for UK national newspapers) went to Switzerland with Lemongrass as part of a group press trip, and pitched to Editors post-trip. EasyJet Traveller magazine was secured almost immediately after the trip.

This is a great example of a risk paying off, and it’s important to highlight as well that the journalist actually used the experience of the trip to inform her pitch.

We find this quite common, too. Sometimes a trip, destination, or experience needs to be experienced first-hand in order to be able to write about it in a way that does it the justice it deserves. It can be worthwhile to host the journalist first – because they’ll get their story ideas and angles from the trip itself.

Then, they’ll pitch the story in a way they know will land with the Editors they have in mind.

Back in May, we hosted a group press trip to Amalfi and Maratea in Italy.

The trip combined two hotels who were in no way associated with each other, so each journalist had to guarantee two completely separate pieces of coverage rather than just the one.

This was quite the ask from us! One journalist was able to confirm a commission for one hotel, but not the other, but they were really keen to join the trip.

So, we took a leap of faith… and invited them to join the trip with this in mind. This was based on the understanding they’d strive to secure a commission for the second hotel.

Around 12 hours before our flight was scheduled to take off from London Gatwick, we received an email from the journalist to say they’d secured a dedicated piece online at The Times for the second hotel.

Now imagine if we hadn’t taken the risk? We’d have potentially been one journalist down on the trip, and we’d have missed out on a great piece of coverage!

On many occasions, we have had a journalist confirm one commission before the trip but on return from the trip they have gone on to produce three or four pieces of coverage. So sometimes with our key contacts, results can go above and beyond what was confirmed originally. This reinforces the value of trusting the relationships we’ve built with our key media contacts. Sometimes taking a calculated risk pays off in ways that far exceed our expectations.

But how do you know whether to take that leap of faith with a journalist?

Ultimately, it all comes down to relationships. And that’s where Lemongrass Travel PR comes in.