Germany: Black horse game about mistakes in PR work

 In Germany, the head of the agency accused of trying to buy ads for the Federal Ministry of Economics in exchange for coverage feels like a scapegoat (see ). Agency boss Jan Flaskamp admitted that mistakes had been made, but that they had not happened exclusively at his company. According to Horizont.net, a publisher's representative had expressly requested information from Flaskamp in a conversation with the media manager about what other measures were planned in addition to the ad placements. Only then did the agency provide him with the list of measures. In addition to the placement of advertisements, the concept included the agreement of media cooperations as well as press work and corresponding editorial reporting. The publisher's representative then forwarded this information together with the advertising offer to the editor-in-chief of his newspaper, which Flaskamp
finds "not okay". "In our agency, advertising placement and editorial work are strictly separated," Flaskamp told Horizont.net. The fact that the agency employee passed on the information was a mistake, however. Nevertheless, the agency boss does not want to put all the blame on himself.