My name is on an article, but I didn't write it

Also, hello from Tenerife!

Hola amigos,

Greetings from GORGEOUS Tenerife, Spain, in the Canary Islands (off the coast of Morocco). I’ve been here for the past 9 days and head to Madrid tomorrow. I’ve been hiking and biking every day since I got here, my latest NatGeo article just published yesterday (about Bhutan festival hiking), and I’m feeling great.

I’ll share more about what made this trip so awesome next week, but for now, I have something else I want to talk about.

Cassandra

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Articles with the wrong author name

Two weeks ago, I attended a product showcase, and someone I had never worked with ran up to me as I was leaving to thank me for including his brand in a recent roundup. Here’s the thing. I had never heard of this brand, and I didn’t include them in the roundup.

The demise of commerce sections

More and more, outlets are having a handful of in-house editors update articles instead of hiring freelancers to do this. As I shared in December, Forbes has completely eliminated freelance contributions for nearly all of their commerce content after losing a lawsuit with Google. CNN also cut freelance commerce contributors last year, USA Today killed their commerce section, Travel + Leisure scaled back, and so have many others.

Bad for writers & bad for brands

This is bad for freelancers because we’re losing a lot of work, and it’s also bad for brands because the overall decrease in commerce coverage means it’s harder for you to find placement.

I’ve seen edits to “my” articles that I would never sign off on. In fact, I now see articles that I wrote two or three years ago receiving a refresh from in-house editors who didn’t pay me for the update, didn’t ask for my input, and didn’t run the changes by me. In some cases, I’m seeing my name on articles that don’t really reflect how I feel about the product, which is disappointing.

Your brand is missing out

I wrote an extraordinarily well-performing commerce article for one major outlet last year, and when I reached out to see if I could write about the 2025 version of the product this year, I was told they didn’t have a freelancer budget. In fact, they didn’t have a budget for their slim in-house staff to write it either, so the product just didn’t get covered.

You already knew that it’s getting harder and harder to find coverage for your products, so this leads me to an exciting announcement I shared in last week’s newsletter…

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Sponsored Summer Travel Articles

Instead of waiting around for publications to increase freelancer budgets (which may never happen), sponsored posts are a great way to guarantee coverage.

I’m partnering with PressHook on several sponsored summer travel articles for Yahoo, where some of my articles have ranked #2 on Google and gotten hundreds of thousands of views.

For this piece, I’m seeking the best summer travel, beach, skincare, and picnic products. PressHook will be coordinating the products and payments, which cost $350 per product. Here’s more on that.

What is PressHook?

If you haven’t heard of PressHook, well, it’s a platform that connects publicists with journalists in a streamlined, non-spammy way. Basically, publicists create and manage brand profiles and press kits, and the AI-driven platform then connects them with journalists in a streamlined way. Writers can also post pitch calls (referred to as “Source Requests”) on there and have brands apply directly, which is the way these sponsored articles are working.

For instance, when I posted a Mother’s Day Source Request on there, brands and PR managers were able to respond to me directly about it, but the AI algorithm also auto-suggested some relevant profiles on PressHook for me to consider.

PressHook offers a suite of workflow tools that benefit both publicists and journalists, like allowing us to search for potential products by category and also flag certain categories in our pitch calls. As such, it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

My summer travel stories pitch call is open on PressHook for the next two weeks, and guess what? I have a code for you to test out PressHook FREE for two weeks. Deal, right?

So, if you’re interested, test it out for free for two weeks, apply to some pitch calls, and let me know what you think of the platform!

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Press Trip Trends Coaching Pods

A few months ago, I sent out a poll to see if there was interest in small group coaching pods where I’d meet with 3-5 people at a time instead of 1:1. There was! The advantage of these small groups is three-fold:

1. You get much more individualized attention than in large group calls

2. You benefit from the support and feedback from your peers.

3. It’s a lot cheaper than 1:1 consults

Given the enormous interest in press trip development and refinement, I’ll be holding my first pod sessions around that theme.

Event Description:

You're spending time, energy, and money crafting and running press trips—so why are your invitations going unanswered?

Join my small group coaching pods to get personalized, targeted feedback about how to improve your press trips.

Whether you're hosting group tours or solo media visits, these pods will help you uncover what journalists really want, how to make your trips stand out in a crowded inbox, and how to design experiences that get booked—and get written about.

This is not a webinar, a lecture, or an Ask Me Anything session. It is an interactive, hands-on workshop that will dig into the essential elements that make or break a press trip and (pitch), tailored to your specific destination and press trips.

You bring your press trip, and I’ll help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. You could bring a current press trip you’re trying to fill, or an idea for a new press trip you are considering.

These small groups will be limited to 3-5 of your peers each, so you can learn and grow in a supportive group of savvy PR practitioners and destination reps, without your questions getting lost in a huge group event.

This 75-minute session is perfect for tourism boards, PR professionals, and tour operators who are tired of ghosted emails and half-filled trips.

Once you join, you’ll be sent a list of potential times the call will take place in early June.

What to Expect:

• Learn why it’s harder than ever to get journalists on board—and what to do about it

• Learn what experienced writers actually look for in a press trip

• Get expert tips for crafting irresistible invitations

• Discover how to balance structure and flexibility in your itinerary

• Real talk: Learn what makes a trip feel like a waste of time to a journalist

• Immediate feedback: Present your trip and learn how it could be improved.

• Peer Input: Learn from supportive peers what’s worked and what hasn’t.

• Differentiate yourself: Walk away with ways to make your press trip stand out from the crowd.

• Live Q&A with Cassandra Brooklyn

“Thank you for organizing such an insightful and candid conversation about press trips in today's media landscape. I left the call with so many ideas/improvements on how to approach future press trips!”

-Sarah Winston, HomeExchange

“I joined the press trip trends call today and wanted to thank you once again for hosting and all the insights. With the media landscape changing constantly, it's always valuable for our clients and team when we're able to hear honest feedback from you about what's working, what's not, and how we can stay up to speed on everything. I enjoyed the intimate format and found your examples super helpful.”

-Sabrina Diaz, CIIC PR

What an incredibly productive and beneficial zoom sesh!! I wasn't sure what to expect with this being my first live-action AMA group chat, but WOW - your Press Trip Trends workshop was awesome. Great turnout. Great questions. Great open candor among industry peers. I can't wait to sign up for the follow-up Pod session. Well done.

Katie Fontana, PR + Hospitality

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