Comments on: The Golf Digest Hot List is a Joke (And We’re Not Laughing)

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:45:29 +0000

Blaine has it right!

By: Red

Red — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:54:15 +0000

distressing

By: freelance writing jobs

freelance writing jobs — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:40:15 +0000

im surprised wow )

By: SpinRants

SpinRants — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:26:46 +0000

Check out the latest at Blaine’s golf blog…

He helps expose the dark underbelly of what really goes on at some “club testing” events. Tell him Spinny sent you. The Golf Digest Hot List is a Joke (And We’re Not Laughing) at Addicted2Golf……

By: Check out the latest at Blaine’s golf blog | SpinRants

Check out the latest at Blaine’s golf blog | SpinRants — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:26:54 +0000

[...] The Golf Digest Hot List is a Joke (And We’re Not Laughing) at Addicted2Golf [...]

By: Spinny

Spinny — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:15:03 +0000

Wow. Color me naive enough to be surprised at how blatant this behavior seemed to be, and connected to what I’d consider to be a major publication. How distressing.

By: Phana24JG

Phana24JG — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:54:53 +0000

Wishon merely confirmed rumors that I had heard for some time, as well as information tacitly admitted to in Gold Digest itself. The Hot List is nothing more than GD pimping on behalf of major advertisers.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:01:01 +0000

I’m not surprised either and I’m also not naive enough to think that it doesn’t go on in other corners. I’m sure you’re right about that Hack. I just hold a publication like Golf Digest to a higher journalistic standard and I believe one of the flagship publications of our industry should have some integrity when it comes to stuff like this. Is that really too much to ask?

So, as a subscriber, what do I think Golf Digest should do next year to rectify the situation? Including another category or issue dedicated to the smaller equipment manufacturers (irrespective of ad spend) would be a step in the right direction towards a truly unbiased process. It would be a compromise that would still enable the magazine to give the major OEM’s their due while allowing smaller companies to get the recognition they deserve truly based on merit. They won’t do it, but a guy can dream, right?

By: Hack

Hack — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:18:08 +0000

Disappointing, but not really surprising. I’ve dealt with a lot of different ‘best of’ lists in my days in PR and by in large they’re a bunch of hooey.

Many of the awards processes are lacking in any transparency at all…and that’s mainly because there is no process.

I’ve heard editors tell me ‘yeah we just talked about it at the editorial meeting and made a decision’. Translation – we argued about it for 20 mins and the loudest voice in the room/or highest rank won.

If you think this is bad…the golf course review guys are even worse. Look at the reviews sent around on twitter and on different golf blogs of courses. Many (if not all) of these people get to play for free (and often free or heavily discounted lodging as well) with a wink/wink agreement that it will translate into a good review.

Blogs are no better off…this is why the FTC put in place their (ridiculously impossible to enforce) rules re: disclosure. There is at least one blogger who we all probably read that gets paid to promote products but doesn’t disclose so in their reviews. Nice.

Sorry for the rant…but it’s a great topic and one that unfortunately doesn’t seem likely to be resolved.