Should the Chinese Wall Between Editorial and Advertorial Be Torn Down? — Seeking Alpha
Good writeup at Seeking Alpha by Mathew Ingram on the recent restructuring at Belo’s paper in Dallas. I’ve been in groups that have talked and pitched models at news publishers to create a “content mall” philosophy where authors are vendors/rentors and the publisher is a service platform and landlord. Huffington Post has a good platform to try out this kind of model. Perhaps the DMN crew could have avoided some rancor in the rank and file if they had called their people “agents” instead of saying editorial would report to business.
Editor & Publisher reported this week that the Dallas Morning News (which is owned by Belo Corp. (BLC)) has done a major restructuring of the newspaper, and one of the most contentious aspects of that re-organization will see the editors of several sections reporting to newly-appointed general managers who also have responsibility for advertising.
Judging by some of the reaction to the news, this move by the Morning News is either a) a smart decision that recognizes the economic realities of the media industry, or b) a deal with Satan that will be the undoing not just of the Morning News but journalism as we know it (I might be exaggerating a tad on that second point). Richard Whittaker said “Thanks, Dallas Morning News, for making your journalists look like they are owned by ad sales and making life harder for all reporters.”
via Should the Chinese Wall Between Editorial and Advertorial Be Torn Down? — Seeking Alpha.