Use of National Press Club’s facilities for an off-the-record meeting involving a former government official, a current government offiicial and contractors at the Club Oct. 8 unleashed a torrent of criticism including charges it is no different than a "Marriott ballroom.”

NPC, “once a temple to the free flow of information, has been compelled to adopt the rule that drives so much else in Washington: pay to play,” wrote Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank Oct. 9.
Milbank noted that shrinkage in the news business has impacted NPC, causing a drop in its membership from 5,500 to 3,100 and that 1,400 of them are PR people.

The PR element would be even higher, he noted, but a Club rule limits their proportion to 45%.

Jobs in journalism have dipped from 52,550 in 2004 to 43,630 in 2013 while PR specialist jobs have grown from 166,630 to 202,530, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

Myron BelkindMilbank didn’t think much of current NPC leadership, saying the current president is “a retired journalist” at George Washington University, without naming him.

The president is Myron Belkind, professorial instructor, School of Media and Pubic Affairs. He was at the AP for 43 years—1962-2005.

Belkind, in a statement to the annual meeting today, which was live webcast, said that contractors group "mistakenly" sent out a release to media that failed to say the meeting was off-the-record. The board of NPC in January will take up the topic of whether permission must be obtained for off-the-record meetings, he said.

Contractors Met in Private
What riled Milbank was an announcement that the International Stability Operations Assn., a group of government contractors such as DynCorp, would be addressed by former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

But when reporters and camera crews showed up, they were told the meeting was “off the record.”

Not only is it “unseemly” for current and former government officials to be “hobnobbing privately” with government contractors, but it’s “a whole other level of outrage” for them to do it at NPC, he wrote.

The episode is indicative of “the decline of the once-grand” Club, he added.

Building For Sale—Again
NPC rents the top two floors of the 13-story building at 529 14th st. N.W., two blocks from the White House. It was acquired in 2011 for $167 million by AEW Capital Mgmt. and Quadrangle Development Corp. Quadrangle previously had a stake in it.

The building, which has 120 office and retail tenants, went on the market again in August, according to the Washington Business Journal. The owners have spent $15 million on renovations in the past ten years.

Milbank’s blast had drawn 167 comments as of press time, most of them negative.

Wrote randomsandythoughts:

“The press brought this on themselves over the past few years for their willingness not to ask any hard questions or dig deep for a story. They swapped their independence and integrity to ensure they didn't go against this administration or report anything that was embarrassment for TheChosen One.

“Just hand us the talking points, thank you very much. Now that they are coming out of their self imposed stupor, they are shocked that they would be treated so shabbily by being banned from a so-called ‘press conference.’

Hard to be sympathetic with these whiners now.”

Dues for working journalists over 35 are $596 yearly while “communicators” (PR, service people, etc.) pay $744.

The National Press Club Journalism Institute, Inc., a 501c/3 organization at the address of NPC, reported revenues of $562,218 and expenses of $531,942 in 2012, latest year available. Net assets were $2,261,524.

Julie Schoo, executive director, filed the tax return Oct. 27, 2013.

Bill McCarren is executive director of NPC, a private corporation that does not publish its finances.