Editorial and advertising departments should work together, writes Philip M. Stone

Followthemedia's Philip M. Stone believes it's time for editorial and advertising departments to work together to increase print's revenue, so that their publication has enough money. Jobs in editorial depend on advertising, and advertising needs help from editorial to bring in money, writes Stone.

"Let's remove the stigma [of the two departments not working together] and rename the newsroom the content room," writes Stone.

He cites an example from the 1980s when United Press International brought in Max McCrohan as the new editor-in-chief. He decided that there would be monthly special projects, each focusing on a specific topic, which would allow the newspaper's advertising department to sell special sections. Each special section was delivered several weeks in advance, so, for instance, a section on gardening would be produced in February for April, and would receive ads from gardening centers, etc. The money earned from the special section paid for UPI's monthly subscription fee and more.

So Stone proposes that a newspaper's advertising and editorial departments should locally agree on a monthly topic for a special section. The editorial department would provide the copy and supplementals while advertising "sells the hell out of it," and potentially find new advertisers for those sections.

Stone acknowledges that stories should not be changed to favor an advertiser, and newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have honored that "journalistic purity," as Stone calls it.

"But the business of newspaper journalism today is to stay in business," writes Stone. "Newspaper departments need to act as a team as never before; the newspaper needs to provide that product to the community that encourages the community to support print."

Source: Follow the Media