Crossing lines

[JunO]

I'm wondering how much collaboration goes on between departments at other small papers. When there's a big project, how much does the newsroom join up with people from advertising and circulation in generating ideas for content, marketing/promotion, etc?

I don't mind the idea of collaborating with people in other departments, wether its informally or through committees, and I think it will probably be necessary as we do more and more with multimedia. Sometimes you need someone from outside your box to to make you see something in a different way. But I think there still should be lines that just shouldn't be crossed. A newsroom employee making a suggestion for a promotional idea is one thing, but that person being expected to carry out the promotional work is crossing a line, in my opinion. Should ad reps go with reporters and photographers as they go on interviews for a big project, say a "community profile" type of package?

Are the lines between editorial and business still firmly drawn where you work, or are they becoming more blurry in the name of survival?

[Jim Thomsen]

Definitely blurry, and definitely a matter of survival.

Probably the most prominent example at my paper is an initiative in which the newsroom must produce at least one video to accompany a news story because ad sales have been pegged to it.

It's not so blurry that advertising/marketing is telling us what to cover, or even suggesting, but I can see a bit of a newsroom shift in thinking that dictates: "We're all in this together, so we might as well do things that sell papers and attract advertisers." That doesn't mean we steer clear of any scared cows — because there are no such beasts in our eyes — but it does mean we ramp up coverage of spring and summer fairs and festivals, for instance, because the ad/marketing folks have produced insert tabs to promote those events.

While the video thing has proved troublesome because it still takes hours to shoot, edit and upload the work, I can't say I'm too ethically uncomfortable with anything that's happened so far at my 30K daily.

[Gerri Berendzen]

We do a lot of collaborating on special section ideas, marketing and promotion ideas, circulation issues, etc. That doesn't mean advertising has a role in determining news coverage.

I've always been a person who thinks that it's good to know the people from the other departments and understand how what they do fits in with what you do. For instance, how many editorial people have sat down with circulation to determine things like how design fits into single-copy sales, or what types of promos people notice first. To me, getting that information doesn't prostitute the news. I think it's great if people actually buy the paper. Then they're much more likely to read the news.

At bigger papers, perhaps the regular newsroom employee doesn't get involved in that sort of thing because there's a glass office editorial employee who has that role. At a smaller paper, you have to make use of all the people available.

Also, those non-newsroom people are out there in the community, and they have insights on what's going on and what the issues are in their neighborhood. It's a little insular to figure that only the editorial people (and the people who take the time to call the newsroom) know what's going on in the community.

But to answer your last question: No, ad reps should not go along on interviews or photo assignments (even on those gray area sections). Start crossing that line and your community will no longer find the newspaper credible.