News and Advertising: Hanging together or separately

When the nation’s key editors and publishers met in Washington this week, one of the topics was “Making the Publisher/Editor Partnership Work.” These days, that often means editors understanding they need to take down some of the wall with advertising departments, as Louis Hau describes at Forbes.com. That doesn’t mean giving up a bit of responsibility for producing an honest news report. It does mean being smart about finding the sweet spot where reader and advertiser interests overlap and both are served by cooperation between news and advertising. One example I can point to proudly is the Business Today section in the Wichita Eagle, now about 18 months old.  Editor Sherry Chisenhall, Advertising V.P. Wendell Funk and their staffs were in close contact all through the development of the section. It turned into an outstanding reader and advertiser success, as Sherry told the Readership Institute at Northwestern University.  The bottom line on cooperation is that profits, readership and advertiser satisfaction are all served when newsrooms and advertising departments find ways to cooperate.

Like OMG, finally a newspaper for the MTV generation

Just when you thought newspapers were dying, they’re about to become nerd-cool again, just like when I worked on the Bulldog Barks at Woodward High School.

MTV is launching a reality show centered around the life, loves and journalism of seven members of a Weston, Florida high school newspaper staff. The kids don’t look as glamorous as those in “The Hills,” but are sure to have better SAT scores.

Click javascript:mctmp(0); for a preview.

A plan for staying alive (Publishers, take note)

The (highly-unofficial) Marine Corps Rules for Gunfights are tacked to the wall at a Marine outpost in the Iraqi town of Anoh in the Euphrates River Valley.  Among the rules:

1. Have a plan.

2. Have a backup plan because the first plan won’t work.

3. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

4. Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.    

Newspaper heaven in Frankfurt

 On a recent visit, I found Frankfurt am Main International Airport  is a little bit of heaven for newspaper readers. The photo on the left shows newspapers for sale. On the right is the rack of free newspapers provided by Lufthansa. They’re mostly in German, but the Financial Times, International Herald-Tribune and USA Today are available in English. There are also lighted billboards throughout the airport advertising German newspapers.

Frankfurt Airport billboard I

Frankfurt Airport billboard II

The Pulitzer Anachronism

Franz Kafka’s short story, “A Hunger Artist,” is about an entertainer who makes his living by demonstrating his unusual ability to starve himself. Eventually, public interest wanes but the man continues, driven by pride in his craft, memories of previous fame and, of course, by madness. In the “Semiotics of Hunger,” Efraim Sicher wrote:

Kafka’s story works beautifully in its cruel paradoxical logic, yet it leaves us without a solution, not necessarily because there isn’t one, but because in the world in which the hunger artist’s performance is no longer visible, the performance can only work if we understand why it is impossible. 

I was thinking about Kafka’s story when I read about this year’s Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism. I applaud the work and congratulate the winners, but think the prizes themselves have become marginalized.

When I was Managing Editor of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, we were fortunate enough to win the Pulitzer for coverage of a devastating local flood. That prize was one of the best experiences of my professional life and helped me get a promotion to the Miami Herald. I was in newsrooms for other Pulitzers in Detroit and Miami, and I twice got to participate as a panelist in the Pulitzer judging process at Columbia University, when I was publisher in State College.

So my feelings don’t stem from bitterness. I just think maybe time has passed for Pulitzers that focus only on newspapers and their web sites. It’s time for prizes that disregard platform and focus just on outstanding journalism, in whatever form it appears.

A new voice on the future of the news media

Hi, I’m Lou Heldman, a short guy with the tall title, Distinguished Senior Fellow in Media Management and Journalism. That’s at Wichita State University, the only urban-serving research university in Kansas.

Monday nights this fall (2008), I’ll begin teaching Strategic Issues in Media Management, to MBA students from the Barton School of Business, and graduate students and advanced undergraduates from the Elliott School of Communication.

One element of the seminar is that we’ll all be blogging about the future of the news media. I’m starting this blog now to get a four-month headstart on the students, sort of like reading ahead in the textbook!

 

A model media executive — Jay Smith

Jay Smith today announced his retirement as president of Cox Newspapers, which owns the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Austin American-Statesman, Dayton Daily News and other excellent local newspapers. I’ve known Jay since our first journalism class together at Ohio State 40 years ago. In my completely biased opinion, he’s been one of the outstanding media executives of our generation. The proof is in the quality improvements in the newspapers Jay has served as publisher (those above) and in other Cox papers in Palm Beach and elsewhere. Jay chaired the Newspaper Association of America, served on the board of Associated Press and held other key industry roles. In each case, he been an untiring advocate of quality journalism and the public’s right to know. He’s still a young man, so more great things are expected. In an email to friends this morning, Jay said:

The challenges facing newspapers are daunting, but the men and women of Cox Newspapers are up to the task. As long as we remember to exist for others, not for ourselves, we will do fine. How will it all turn out and what route will get us there? Darned if I know, but I’m confident of a good outcome. And may you never lose sight of the fact that newspapers and, increasingly, their Web sites are vital to an informed and active democracy. 

Jay goes out as he has always been, a class act.