WHAT DOES EXCLUSIVE REALLY MEAN?

'Exclusive' interviews with Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, seem to be the flavour of the month right now but just how exclusive are these interviews when almost every publication has had one in the past few months?
Publications like to stress the word exclusive because they feel it adds some importance or prestige to their story, but in reality all it means is they have managed to get some one-on-one face time with their subject. There's generally nothing exclusive about what's reported.
The word exclusive is used far too often, and recently to such an extent where the whole intended meaning is being lost. In Thailand perhaps it's because a lot of locally generated stories come as a result of press releases or press conferences? If that's true then any one-on-one interview could potentially be labelled as exclusive.

Coming soon: The Bangkok Bugle's exclusive interview with a Thai publisher at the forefront of the digital magazine revolution. Yes, seriously.