Pay for praise ... ; ... or pay the price; Area politicians have paid publisher Joseph J. Illuzzi thousands of dollars for magazine cover photos and favorable articles and, not incidentally, to avoid negative coverage

Joseph J. Illuzzi, the publisher of a political Web site and aglossy new monthly magazine, describes himself as an Internetpioneer and a journalist.

But by charging as much as $5,000 for glowing cover stories inthe magazine and up to $3,000 for favorable coverage on his Web site-- and slamming some who don't buy ads -- Illuzzi gets called a lotof other names. His fiercest critics -- bloggers who write local Weblogs -- have taken to calling Illuzzi "Posts For Cash" for hispractice of only posting news releases for politicians who pay him.

They accuse Illuzzi of violating a state election law that saysthose who ask money from political candidates for news coverage areguilty of a misdemeanor.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said the accusationmerits looking into. "If somebody made that complaint to me," Clarksaid, "I feel like I would be obligated to look at it and see if itis a prosecutable offense."

His critics say Illuzzi, 57, is continuing a pattern that beganin 1969, when he and his roommate robbed an M & T Bank in theirElmwood Avenue neighborhood. FBI agents arrested them after theirmailman recognized them running from the scene.

For Illuzzi, then a college student who pleaded guilty and wasgiven four years probation, it was one of a number of scrapes withthe law. He was convicted of securities fraud in 1989, a stolen carcharge in 1996, and a contempt of court charge two years ago forfailing to pay child support.

Illuzzi says he is a born-again Christian who says he has turnedhis life around. But his checkered past seems to matter little topoliticians, who flock to advertise on his Web site, the newly namedPoliticsNY.net. It previously was called PoliticsWNY.com.

As of Friday, there were more than 40 politicians who have bannerads on his site, most of them paying $1,500 to $3,000 for the adsand the right to run their news releases on his Web site.

The politicians range from Mayor Anthony M. Masiello, Rep. BrianHiggins, Amherst Supervisor Susan Grelick, Buffalo Common CouncilMembers Antonine Thompson and Brian Davis, Assembly Majority LeaderPaul Tokasz, State Sen. George Maziarz, and the chairmen of ErieCounty's two major political parties, Len Lenihan of the Democratsand Bob Davis of the Republicans.

The Web site is a dishy blend of political news, press releasesand inside gossip, with frequent rants against County Executive JoelA. Giambra. Illuzzi freely admits the Web site has its share ofspelling and punctuation errors.

But he also takes credit for breaking stories on the Erie Countypatronage scandal, the budget crisis, the county highway barnscandal and crime at local delis.

Politicians say they buy Illuzzi's ads for the exposure.

"Do I consider it legitimate journalism?" asked Assemblyman SamHoyt, D-Buffalo, who said he expects a magazine cover story in 2006for the $2,500 in ads he has bought this year. "No," Hoyt said. "Butit's a Web site that's a must-see for everyone in Western New Yorkpolitics and increasingly, New York State politics."

Lee Coppola, dean of the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalismand Mass Communications at St. Bonaventure University, said Illuzzihas no claim to call himself a journalist. "Once you start chargingfor editorial material, you cease to be a journalist," said Coppola."He's a salesman. It's the basis of Journalism 101. You can doanything you want as a salesman, just don't call yourself ajournalist."

Most politicians who bought feature stories in "The Magazine" saythey considered them paid advertisements.

Bob Davis, Erie County GOP chairman, was featured in the Junecover story. He said the party paid $3,000 to Illuzzi for Web adsand another $1,200 for the cover story to announce a new GOPinitiative. "We considered it an ad," Davis said. "We had planned tospend the money on advertising pamphlets anyway, and then this camealong."

Robert Whelan, a candidate for county comptroller, said hiscampaign aides paid $3,500 for the August cover story, one thatWhelan said he was unable to cancel once he found out about it. "Iknow it was clearly portrayed as buying a story," Whelan said.

Industrialist Jack Davis, a former congressional candidate, saidhe paid $5,000 for the July cover to launch his Save Jobs Party."That was the deal," Davis said. "It is not free."

>Helfer spurned offer

Kevin Helfer turned down Illuzzi's offer and said he suffered theconsequences. Helfer met with Illuzzi in March before Helferdeclared his candidacy as the Republican candidate for mayor. Afterthe interview, Helfer said, Illuzzi posted a very favorable reportabout him on the Web site.

Helfer said he chose, however, not to buy a package of ads thatincluded a promise of a favorable story in "The Magazine."

Byron W. Brown, his Democratic opponent, paid $5,000 to Illuzzithis year and was featured in positive cover stories in the May andNovember issues. Brown's campaign manager, Steve Casey, denied therewas any promise of a cover story for the ads.

But Helfer soon started being attacked by Illuzzi after saying noto a package of ads that Helfer campaign manager Christopher Grantsaid ran to as much as $25,000.

Illuzzi's Web site described Helfer as a "glorified parking lotattendant" -- he's the executive director for Buffalo's parkingagency -- and even worse in "The Magazine." The November issue,which featured Brown on the cover, carried an inside photo of Helferwith the description, "The Biggest Pig in the Pen."

"I'm sure if I had bought the ad, he would have written nicethings about me, 'that Helfer's a nice guy, but he has no chance,' "said Helfer, who did indeed get trounced by Brown. "It would havebeen without the venom."

Charles Fieramusca, the Democratic candidate for Erie Countysheriff, said he bought a $3,000 ad because of that fear.

"I think in the political world -- and I'm a political novice,prior to May 2005 my political experience was zilch -- the generalfeeling is if you don't pay up, you get trashed," Fieramusca said.

"We both know that's crazy, isn't it," Illuzzi said in response.

>Illuzzi's explanations

Illuzzi met with a Buffalo News reporter for 90 minutes Thursday,offering explanations for the charges people have made against himand saying that while the money is nice, his primary purpose iseducating voters.

"We're doing a million dollars this year, maybe twice that nextyear," he said of his revenues.

There is no independent way of checking those figures.

Illuzzi talked about selling magazine cover stories in aninterview he ran on his Web site.

"The problem with our critics is that we've made an art out ofit," he told interviewer John Maggiore. "We found a way to make aconsiderable amount of revenue. I have to laugh when some of ourcritics say you shouldn't be selling your magazine covers. A numberof publications sell their covers. The people pointing fingers donot have expenses exceeding $15,000 a month."

In the May debut issue of "The Magazine," with Byron Brown on thecover, there was an explanation on the magazine's masthead on how tobe featured in interviews and articles. "Buy a full pageadvertisement for 1 year and receive a complimentary featuredinterview and article in Politics-NY.com 'The Magazine,' " the copyread. "Call Now for Details!"

It was the last issue in which that explanation appeared.

Why? "That's not what we do," Illuzzi said in explanation.

He was then asked about a letter still on his Web site's mediakit, which states: "Just call us and ask how you can get your ownarticle or interview in PoliticsWNY.com 'The Magazine.' "

Illuzzi said that offer should not be in the media kit andattributed it to the newness of putting out a magazine. But whenasked about the various politicians who said they paid for theirpositive cover stories, Illuzzi said the cover stories were indeedadvertisements.

"We should have said paid advertising," he said, pointing to thecover with Byron Brown. "If I had to do it over again, I would.There was no intent to hide anything."

Asked to go through the magazine and point out which stories wereads and which he considered journalism, Illuzzi did so. But therewas no indication to the reader what was paid for and what was not.

Illuzzi also was asked about the fact all cover stories werepositive, with nothing negative ever said about those featured.

"Well, he bought it," he said of a person who buys an ad and getsa feature story. "Obviously he becomes a PoliticsWNY.com client. Hebecomes a client of ours. As a purchaser of advertisement, it wouldbe counterproductive if we wrote negative things."

Illuzzi dismissed the accusation by local bloggers that he hasviolated state election law by charging those running for office forarticles.

The law in question is Section 17-112 -- soliciting mediasupport:

"Any person who solicits from a candidate for an elective officemoney or other property as a condition or consideration for asupporting article, report or advertisement in any publication ornews media in favor of such candidate, is guilty of a misdemeanor."

"We don't do anything illegal," he said. "This is nonsense."

Illuzzi points to two blogs, BuffaloPundit, written by attorneyAlan Bedenko, and BuffaloWatchdog, written by TV journalist MarcOdien, as the source of most complaints. Bedenko and Odien declinedto comment, saying what they have to say about Illuzzi is archivedon their Web sites.

One of their standing complaints is that Illuzzi claims "3.5million hits" on his Web site, as an indication of how many readershe has.

But as the bloggers point out, hits are meaningless, a vestige ofthe early days of the Internet.

If a person clicks on Illuzzi's site, which has 50 pictures, thetext and each picture registers, so it would count as 51 hits. Thereare also automated programs call bots that sample Web sites,recording numerous hits without a person ever seeing the Web site.

The more accurate way to measure -- and to use for ad rates --Internet experts say, is to count unique visitors that come to a Website. By that standard, Illuzzi's own Web site shows he had 5,040unique visits in October. After BuffaloPundit published thosefigures, Illuzzi made his site count unavailable. Asked why he stilladvertises 3.5 million hits on his Web Site, Illuzzi told The News,"Because it sounds better."

e-mail: mbeebe@buffnews.com