Travel Editor Jill Schensul: 'We don't take free trips'

Customers of Starbucks Coffee, Cosi and other businesses at this medical building on Essex Street in Hackensack found themselves fighting over parking spaces last week after half of the lot was closed for repairs, above.

A security guard had to direct cars entering from Prospect Avenue; the Summit Avenue entrance and exit were closed. The lot seems to require repairs every couple of years. At another Sanzari medical building across Summit, the garage was closed for repairs that seemed to drag on forever before it was reopened. Nearby residents complained valet parkers were using spaces on a side street for the cars of building visitors.

The repairs appeared to have been completed by Thursday, but the lot can't be open until parking-space stripes are painted on the surface. The lot was still closed today, and the entrance to the building was blockaded.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Travel Editor Jill Schensul says The Record's policy has always been to pay for the trips she writes about in stories and columns.

"Ever since I've been doing travel at The Record, the policy here is we don't take free trips," Schensul said in response to a question -- "What about junkets?" --from JimRomenesko.com, a media blog.

On Sept. 30, the blog published an e-mail from Schensul, who has been "on The Record's travel beat for 20 years," to explain "how the paper covers travel with a limited budget."

"How The Record's travel section wins awards" is the post title.

Shrinking section

"We used to have 16 pages for our Sunday Travel section. Now, it's four," Schensul wrote, without explaining the drastic reduction in space.

"If we get 'invited' on a trip and it sounds interesting and would be a good fit for our readership, we'll negotiate a press rate. It's standard operating procedure.

"A few papers -- The New York Times and the Washington Post, I think -- pay for everything, and require freelancers to do the same," she said.

Special rates

"We negotiate a rate with the trip's organizers that makes it possible for us to get out and test drive new places," she continued.

"It's the way we have come up with to keep providing Record-generated stories, photos and insights rather than wire copy for our readers."

Schensul added:

"This isn't to say we only travel when someone offers us a ready made press trip. We decide on at least a few big projects at the beginning of the year, and then I go about researching the best way to go. 

"We may get a press rate at a hotel, or a guide through the tourist office, but almost everything else is full price. (I don't eat gourmet meals very often ... well, ever.) Still, we are always weighing the bang for the buck."

German trip

Schensul's e-mail to JimRomenesko.com appeared after a Sept. 13 Eye on The Record post said she had betrayed readers by taking a free press trip to a German shipyard, where two mega cruise ships are being built for Royal Caribbean.

(At least one Eye on The Record reader pointed out the post was accurate since the trip was "free" to Schensul herself.)

It's unclear why The Record's Travel section doesn't have a standing box telling readers the paper pays for Schensul's trips, similar to the statement that appears with every restaurant review.

More questions

And her e-mail raises a couple of unresolved questions:

When Schensul negotiates a "press rate" -- a preferential rate that isn't available to readers -- shouldn't she say so?

Do the hotels, cruise lines and so forth expect something in return for giving The Record a break on the price?

Also, even though the Times is far bigger than The Record, it seems to have more financial problems, announcing this week a reduction of 100 newsroom staffers.

Why can't The Record pay the full price for trips and require freelancers to do so as well?

'Good fit'?

And I am puzzled why Schensul regards a lavishly promotional story on two new Royal Caribbean cruise ships -- each of which can hold 4,180 passengers -- as "a good fit" for readers, the vast majority of whom are older and wouldn't be caught dead trapped on a vessel with hundreds of noisy kids.

For another story, she left her "Berlin: 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall" press group to go on a tour that allowed her to drive one of the world's unsafest cars in East Berlin.

Her story described the Trabants as "adorably boxy little polluters."

Was that story "a good fit" for readers?

A good editor

When I worked at The Record, Schensul edited my freelance Travel cover story, "Many Faces of Cuba," which appeared on March 26, 2000.

The story was the first full-length account of traveling in Cuba by a newsroom staffer, but took more than a year to get into the paper, because of opposition by the chief editor.

I found Schensul to be a good editor.

But the question remains: Why hasn't she visited and written about Cuba since then?

Today's paper

The front page today is dominated by a Mike Kelly column rehashing a 1996 suicide bombing in Israel -- all to promote a book he wrote on the incident.

The man has no shame.

Today's column is no different than every other piece he has written about 9/11, the downing of Pan Am 103 and so forth and so on (A-1).

Another columnist, Charles Stiles, looks ahead three years to the next gubernatorial election in 2017, helping the paper keep the focus off of the miserable job Governor Christie is doing now (A-1).

Editor Martin Gottlieb even commissioned a rare Page 1 profile of a federal judge, Esther Salas, who tickled his fancy by sentencing Teresa and Joe Giudice -- aka Mr. and Mrs. Bimbo -- to federal prison for fraud (A-1).

Local yokels

No Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news appears in today's Local section.

A story on L-1 says a dump truck fell "several feet into the pavement," but the accompanying photo shows more than half the truck below the surface of the parking lot.

Sweet spot

From the title, The Corner Table column in Better Living sounds like it should be dealing with local restaurant issues (BL-1).

But Staff Writer Elisa Ung's sweet tooth continues to lead her far astray, as today's column headline shows:

"Modern doughnuts reach North Jersey" 

On BL-2, the section promotes " a toasted marshmallow ice cream dessert," which I'm sure will be a big hit with diabetics and readers watching their weight and cholesterol.

Selective editing

Saturday's front page was dominated by high school football, falling unemployment and yet another story about Joe Giudice, who isn't a U.S. citizen.

The selective editing the paper employs on just about every Christie story appears to be affecting other issues.

Saturday's Page 1 story on The Valley Hospital suing the Ridgewood Planning Board fails to mention the hospital wants to expand within the existing borders of its campus.

As such, the omission appears to be slanting the story in favor of nearby residents who oppose the expansion.

Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski's byline appears over a news story on the NJ Transit payroll (Saturday's A-3).

Garrett ducks debate

On Saturday's Local front, a story by Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson refers to Roy Cho, who is challenging Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, in the 5th District, as a "Hackensack Democrat."

Later, on Saturday's A-6, Cho's full name appears in connection with word Garrett refused to attend the only major debate scheduled in Bergen County.

The Tea Party icon pulled out of the Ridgewood debate after "the coalition of sponsors had been widened to include African-American groups and the League of Women Voters," according to the story.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, The Star-Ledger published an editorial, "Scott Garrett -- a champion of fiction, not disaster control," in reference to the Republican's initial opposition to $50 billion in federal Sandy relief aid.

The Record didn't even mention Garrett's opposition in a Page 1 column last Monday, and no editorial has condemned the six-term congressman for a mailer that claimed he "worked to bring immediate relief to Sandy victims."