Taking down the wall between church and state
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
With layoffs in newsrooms all across the nation, newspapers are casting about for answers to the advertising recession. If auto dealers aren’t selling, they’re not advertising. If homebuilders aren’t selling homes, they’re not advertising. Of course, if they’re not advertising, how’s anyone to know what they have to sell. It’s a vicious cycle.
At the Dallas Morning News, they’ve come up with a reorganization that is bothersome, and flies in the face of the traditional separation of church and state, otherwise known as news and advertising.
According to a memo this week from editor Bob Mong and the paper’s vice president for sales, Cyndy Carr, sports and entertainment editors will now report directly to a general manager who is in charge of advertising.
The memo quoted Bob Yates, executive sports editor, as saying, "We should be able to move much more quickly to take advantage of opportunities. That comes from having greater autonomy that gives us the freedom to develop both advertising and content solutions."
Advertising over the years has paid the freight for newspapers, but the papers have sought to assure readers that advertisers do not “dictate” the news content.
At the Review-Journal we have sections labeled as promotional, devoted to homes, autos, etc. These are produced by a department separate from the newsroom. That is how most papers have handled the need for content to support advertisers.
Though I suspect most readers do not make the distinction and believe the advertisers dictate news content already, this is a disturbing move. We’ll see how it works out.
Read the memo in a blog posting at Editor & Publisher. Also read stories and commentary at The New York Times, The Dallas Observer, E&P and Newsosaur.
