Boston.com / Business / Pay to play

Boston.com / Business / Pay to play: "The magazine quoted an analyst for Aberdeen Group, a Boston market research firm, as saying BrassRing 'no longer stands out among the 150 small software makers in this speciality.' BrassRing, with $40 million in revenue considers itself a leader in software that tracks resumes, was not amused and called the Aberdeen analyst, Katherine Jones, to complain about her comments and about being left out of an industry survey she did over the summer.
'Well, it sounds like we have a market image problem to correct, and we may be able to help you with that,' Jones told BrassRing executive Austin Whitman, according to notes he made of the conversation. 'Is there a cost associated with that?' Whitman asked.
'Oh, there's a price tag to everything, isn't there?' the Aberdeen analyst replied. BrassRing says she offered to write an eight-page 'profile' of the company, provide it with 100 copies, put it on Aberdeen's website and provide information on who was downloading it, a source of business leads. The price: $25,000."

FYI Burton Group, my employer, does not do "white papers" or other dubious deals with vendors.