USAT | For luxe White House dinner, price jumps

It will cost USA Today even more this spring if it buys the same complement of tables that readers say it got for last year's White House Correspondents Association Dinner. "Washington’s hottest dinner ticket just became more expensive,'' the E&P in Exile blog says today. "Attendees at this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner will have to fork over $225 for the May 1 event, an increase over the previous $200 price tag."

Last year, I was told, USA Today bought eight tables at $2,000 each as part of its participation in the celebrity-studded event. This year's host is late-night TV's Jay Leno (left).

Among the association's officers: USAT's David Jackson, who is vice president. The black-tie dinner is nominally about raising $132,000 for college scholarships, a cause hosted by the association of journalists covering the White House. But in recent years, it's taken on Hollywood trappings as media outlets compete to seat the most sought-after celebrities at their tables. And many of the other seats are reserved for advertisers, turning the event into much more of a marketing opportunity than a purely journalism schmooze fest. For that reason, The New York Times has skipped the dinner for the past two years.

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