Yes, Actual People Do Write Those Letters to Parade Magazine

Public Relations

Scott Baradell

Published: Dec 13, 2005

Last Updated: Dec 2, 2017

(Author's note: "Fake news" circa 2005.)

A man named Ed Klein leads the team at Parade that answers questions to "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" -- which bills itself as "the most widely read column in the English language."

That's right. There is no Walter Scott; he's a fictional character.

But the questions Walter receives are real, apparently. Novelist-sleuth Tod Goldberg tracked down an actual letter-writer, in fact. And besides, it's fun to read anyway, right?

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About the Author

Scott Baradell

Trust expert Scott Baradell is CEO and founder of Idea Grove. Idea Grove helps its clients secure trust at scale through its unique Grow With TRUST approach. Scott is an established authority on trust and editor of the online publication Trust Signals, as well as author of the upcoming book Trust Signals: Brand Building in a Post-Truth World. Idea Grove celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2020, earning honors including the 2020 Pegasus Award for Small Agency of the Year, being named a Top 200 B2B service provider by Clutch, and ranking in the top 25 tech agencies in the U.S. by O'Dwyer's. Scott has an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America and speaks on PR and marketing topics at industry events nationwide.

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