As has been mentioned, it's not a case of paying, it's simply doing the job of PR. It depends on the cost structure of the PR contract - it's quite likely they

As has been mentioned, it's not a case of paying, it's simply doing the job of PR. It depends on the cost structure of the PR contract - it's quite likely they just provided services for free (and then paid for transport). Which isn't dissimilar to pretty much all PR work. Although when I used to do video game reviews a long time ago, the PR agency would actually had to prove ROI over the RRP of the review copy of the game (£40) sent out, rather than the unit cost (a few pence for the DVD + postage) - so the "cost" of the journalist visit might be booked at a much higher rate. Traditionally, the value is based on the AVE (some agencies still use AVE...) vs perceived uplift in interest. When you should start worrying about integrity is when there are follow links in the article with some kind of explicit UTM tracking. Something getting increasingly pervasive with the digital PR/SEO side of things.