Report: News Orgs Choke On Cost Of Obama Trip

President Obama’s trip to Asia next month should prove to be reasonably newsworthy. For the news media, however, there is a more immediate concern: the heart-stopping cost of covering the president’s travels.

The Washington Post reports news organizations began reacting with surprise and exasperation when they learned last week that a ticket to ride on the press charter plane that follows Obama throughout Asia will be $60,000. Per person.

That cost — the most expensive total ever — does not include hotel stays, meals and shared “ground costs,” such as the rental of hotel ballrooms for use as press filing centers. Those additional expenses could push the total bill to about $70,000 per person for nine days of travel, according to some White House journalists.

The cost of press charters is determined by a competitive bid among air carriers based on the number of people who sign up for the trip. Since the cost of the charter is shared among all those who travel on it, the price of a ticket decreases as the number of travelers increases. But the reverse is also true.

In this case, only two charter carriers bid on the trip, and the number of passengers who signed up to travel was relatively low — an average of just 51 passengers as of Thursday, or about half the usual number. Among others, the TV networks, the wire services and the New York Times are sending smaller contingents than usual. The Washington Post will have one reporter on the trip. Among other outlets committed to traveling on the press charter are the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the Wall Street Journal and Tribune Newspapers.

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