Rob Howard, Sr Vice President of sales for Maritime Reporter & Marine News (both Maritime Magazines ) and MarineLink (a maritime website) started by giving us a 'steep discount', the 'friends rate' we aren't friends on the advert we place before our relationship got colorful and I was strong armed to pay getting simple press releases on his site.
These boys also inflate their web stat filings. According to a CS friend of mine they count non-human spiders that 'ping' their site ever hour.
Robby first sold the magazine to me as a 100+ year old magazine, the source for hard maritime news. It sure didn't take me too long to figure out the only reporters they have work in the sales department. All their properties consist only of regurgitating press releases and go right into their subscribers trash cans because the magazine is free.
1 ad in Tradewinds got me more leads than every ad I placed with these buffoons.