Journalists are almost always special cased to events in general -- it's assumed they're not participating in the same way as everyone else, are generally poor/without budget, but are key to the event. Taking care of journalists (with a press room, a senior enough contact to help them with things, etc.) is key to making your event a success. The hard part is credentialing journalists -- it's a great hack to say "I'm a blogger" or "I have a YouTube channel" and get into a conference for free and be treated as a VIP. I've had great fun at an arms fair doing that :)