Dude, you have obviously never been to Hall H.

Since there is already “studio executive” space being set aside in the big rooms, I would have no problem if the folks running the panel were able to indicate the people the seats were for, thus allowing them the opportunity to make certain that a certain number of people the panel felt were important to have -press or otherwise- got seats (assuming this could be done without placing undue strain on CCI resources.)

I don’t think I said anything about what you specifically were asking for, Heidi. I was addressing the things actually stated in the piece, where you’re quoting folks saying things like “The con may need to consider setting aside a space in each panel room for the media.”

“I would just like a special press PASS so I don’t have to spend 60-90 minutes of my schedule PER DAY standing in the broiling sun so I can do the job I am paid. I can sit with whoever, and if a room is too full I get that.”

I don’t know of any panels where one had to spend time standing in line if the room was not too full; if it’s not too full, you can show up a minute before the event and get a seat. Possibly I missed some major change in procedure, as I was not trying to go to too many panels this year. Of course, it may be hard to predict when the room is going to be too full ahead of time, but that’s a problem for everyone — not just the people who are being paid to be there, but also the people who are paying to be there.

Mind you, the press pass doesn’t provide much. There really is a problem with many “reporters” acting like fans. I’m still working on the load of articles we’ve covered during the Comic-Con and our team posted about 30 stories while the convention was going on. I’d like other media reps to be asked about their past resumes next year, when they apply for press passes.

Mind you, we have a reputation to built so, having fun at the convention was not a priority. For me, this convention was all work, inside the halls and outside.

So yeah, some of the press does real work. Special access would have been useful, but personally, much of the panels were not very newsworthy in my opinion. Real news and “promotions” are still indistinguishable in this industry.

About the issue of a allowing a fan or a reporter to seat in a room, more experienced events organizers have figured out a long time ago that most media will get your message spread wide across further than one fan being satisfied. But then, one must never forget that the media is not there to spread the message of the vendor. It’s there to be objective and cover newsworthy material. If it’s not newsworthy, it should not be covered. What is newsworthy is not decided by exhibitors or even organizers.

It should be celebrated that the con has gotten so popular that it’s flooded with media that want to cover the event, and not just bloggers or online industry webzines but real-live media. And the media serves a purpose at such an event by telling people who couldn’t make it what happened. By, you know, reporting the news. And it’s hard to do that if you’re not in the room. But it’s also unfair to fans if 100 reporters take up seats in a 200-seat panel.

There can be a distinction between the working press and people who aren’t — and it can be accomplished by requiring the journalist applying for the pass to prove they have an actual assignment. Concert promoters and sports teams do this for reporters and photographers. It weeds out media pros who aren’t actually covering the con as well as people who might claim to be media but aren’t. It’s selective, sure, but that’s the entertainment business. Many times I’ve wanted a photo pass to shoot a rock concert (I used to do that freelance) but have been told I can’t because the outlet I was representing didn’t cut the mustard. And that’s life.

There are other ways around this, too. For example, establish a media pool for press coverage, like the Pentagon and White House do. That is, send in 10 reporters (not 100) to an event and they can share their reportage with other outlets.

Or, video the panels on closed circuit TV feeds that air in special press rooms, so the reporters can sit in that room and watch the live action. They can’t ask questions, but typically only fans ask questions at panels anyway.

There are plenty of real-world examples of how to get around this problem. But the media attention on the con is so new and so explosive, it may just take time to work it out.

I understand your disparagement of entitlement, and I am way too tired to even get into it now, but that part at least you have wrong.

See, no snarkness there, just someone who knows so much more then you.

Well, Robert, if your reading-comprehension or understanding of the situation is that poor, then that is your problem. It is neither true that all the press credentials at the con are for working members of the non-fan press, nor is it true that I claimed they were. What is true is that some of the people who have press badges are indeed there to have fun. Believe me, I’ve talked to some of those folks. I’ve not done the polling to show that that “some” is enough to be “many”.

“whether fans are having “fun” isn’t a reasonable concern:”

It may not be a reasonable concern to the reporter. It is, however, a reasonable concerns for the fan, and for the convention. If you want to fling about obscenities and calls to “grow up” because someone dared express concern for someone besides journalists, however, you may want to put some more thought into the issue and gain a bit of perspective.

“It’s not a “please the press” vs. “please the fans” matter at all.”

I don’t know if you’ve followed the discussion here, but yes, it is that sort of a matter. What some journalists have been calling for is for areas of these crowded rooms to be set aside for press, so that they don’t have to stand in line for a long time to get in on a talk that is going to be filled to capacity. The panels for which this is an issue are the ones where there are fans standing in line to get in, and not all will make it. What the journalists are asking for is a privileged level of access that will ensure that some of them get in… and the cost of some fans who have been waiting in line getting in. (Nothing I’ve seen will increase the overall capacity available in the room, and presumably the convention has already been working these rooms as close to capacity as it is.)

Despite what you seem to believe, I am not unaware of the desires and concerns of those with press badges. I just don’t see that as the only desires and concerns of value.

If the con can’t allow reporters to move freely from event to event, if that freedom hurts the con’s business, it shouldn’t allow as many of them in as it does. It’s totally the convention’s call. However, this “special treatment” bullshit makes it seem as if the press is getting over on the con, or denying fans any pleasure. It’s not a “please the press” vs. “please the fans” matter at all.

If I have to stand in multi-hour line ups in order to cover something, than fuck it, I ain’t going to cover it.

If I have to stand in multi-hour line ups in order to cover something, than fuck it, I ain’t going to cover it.

That certain members of the press feel that the people who are there to have fun should have less fun because they’re not satisfied with the forms of special access that they already have… well, that doesn’t seem real convincing to me If you want to come up with a reason why it’s Comic-Con’s responsibility to give these people additional special access, feel free to do so. But if the best logic you can come up with is to whine “grow up”, then perhaps you need to examine your stance a mite more carefully.

As a tech journalist, I’ve gone to huge crowded keynotes for 20 years — and there is always reserved press seating. It’s not “favored” treatment: it’s just business, meant to ensure that the company’s message gets propogated as much as possible. Any company making the effort to put on a big presentation must decide if it is more important to reach the fans [or business attendees] at the event, or the presumably many more the media would get the message to.
Of course, that’s a decades-old paradigm: now that almost everyone has a blog and in at least some sense is a journalist, it makes it a trickier call for those deciding who sits where.

Of course, I meant “movie” screenings. I don’t think we need floating film shows!

But I did want to take a moment to agree with those who are hoping with some general improvement on the seating system. Someone squatting through two hours of panels they’re not interested in to make certain they have a seat for the one they really want is obviously not enjoying the best possible experience… nor are the people who don’t get into the panel they want because of the seats filled up by those squatters. Can’t say that I see an easy solution to this, though, but I hope someone comes up with one.

I haven’t noticed major panels going without coverage under the current system.

“Nat, maybe I’m reading more snark into your tone than was intended, but I fail to see how the solutions being suggested would be any different from newspapers getting press passes to sporting events or pre-release movie screenings, etc., etc.”

Pre-release moving screenings are intended to be press events. That’s what they are there for, much as press conferences are. But even if that weren’t the case, I don’t see that other places do it inherently makes it right in general, much less specifically right for panels at Comic-Con. (As Tom McLean noted, there are apparently plenty of press-only events for relevant folks to get information to the press.)

It’s not particularly snarky to note that the people who Heidi cited as calling for more special treatment for the press were members of the press, and not, say, the people who were standing in line for two hours to get into an event who may find themselves kept out of it were there special press set-asides . Rather, it seems to me an appropriate point to raise when addressing the claim that this “has gotten in just about everyone’s craw”.

I’ll also confess to completely ignoring the “Studio Reps Only” signs and sitting in those seats for both Neil’s spotlight and Quick Draw (with the excuse for Quick Draw that I actually do need to be up near the front as Mark traditionally calls on me first to do the guess words from drawings game as well as making use of my having a stopwatch function on my watch). More than half were empty, I strongly suspected most people in them weren’t reps, and to be blunt, for those two items there is absolutely no reason I can think of why a studio rep should get any special treatment or privileges whatsoever.

That said, I didn’t even bother getting in line for the Heroes panel (the line *wrapped around* the second floor)

My wife was in that line for something like 2.5 hours and still didn’t make it into the room. She wanted to go to the Battlestar Galactica panel afterward, and was determined to get something out of standing there so long, so she stayed in line after they closed the doors. This left her right by the front doors to the room during most of the Heroes panel. She said it was painful to hear everyone inside cheering, without knowing what was going on. She eventually was able to watch the video footage online — after we got home.

I understand there were something like 3000 press badges issued this year.

I actually ended up with a press pass this year at the last minute, since I agreed to do daily reports for Comics Should be Good. I didn’t need it, but figured it would get me a little more access than the regular badge, so I picked it up. In the end, all it got me was recognition from a couple of people I talked to, who said, “Oh, Comic Book Resources!” There was (apparently — I never got far enough forward to see it) a press corral for photographers in Hall H, but the one time I was there, the the row of chairs was so packed that I didn’t want to mess with getting out and back in.

As for figuring out which press members get “special treatment,” maybe instead of blanket access, they could have a reservation system. Set aside a certain number of seats for press, but require each person to sign up ahead of time for a specific panel. And cut that off well before the start of the panel. (Just thinking out loud.)

No you’re not.

Jackie E.

Nat, maybe I’m reading more snark into your tone than was intended, but I fail to see how the solutions being suggested would be any different from newspapers getting press passes to sporting events or pre-release movie screenings, etc., etc. Of course for all I know, such a system is already in place for the bigger media players.