Chequebook journalism (or checkbook journalism in American English) is the form of journalism where the essential characteristic is that the journalist pays the subject of the work for the right to publish their story.
The phrase "chequebook journalism" is a pejorative and rhetorical term. It highlights that stories obtained by paying people are of less a hard news character than those generated by conventional investigation. The News of the World became a notorious publication for such practices, often discovered attempting to buy stories off key witnesses in criminal trials such as the Moors murders case, and the 1999 trial of Gary Glitter on charges of assaulting an underage teenage fan; shortly before its closure in 2011 the paper was revealed to have bribed police officers to obtain material for a series of news stories concerning Jennifer Elliott, daughter of the actor Denholm Elliott.
In Australia chequebook journalism is viewed as a symptom of the fiercely competitive commercial television industry (most notably amongst current affairs programs). In the UK the print media uses it extensively, due to its geographic layout being conducive to the distribution of national (rather than City based or regional) newspapers.
The rescue of the Australian miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse renewed public awareness of chequebook journalism, as the TV networks and their stakeholders bid for the exclusive rights to the story as told by miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb, who were trapped underground for 2 weeks.
In North America, paying money for interviews, although not illegal, is generally frowned upon. However, major media outlets in the United States will sometimes attempt to get around these standards by paying licensing fees for the rights to photos or footage (such as home video) relating to the subject, or paying for expenses such as flights, in conjunction with an "exclusive" interview.
Notable examples
Some notable examples of cases involving chequebook journalism include: