One of the bedrock principles of newspaper journalism for as long as I can remember has been that advertising does not dictate the news -- advertisers do not get to buy favorable treatment, the sales staff does not get to veto stories that might piss off an advertiser.
There was always a wall of separation between editorial and advertising.
That wall came crashing down in Dallas today.
Today the Dallas Morning News announced that some of its news sections will now report directly to its sales staff.
Morning News Edior Bob Mong defends the decision in this interview:
You say the journalism is "uncompromised." But the fact that news editors will report to business-side general managers gives the perception that there's a real breach of church and state taking place here.
Well, it's not going to happen. It's important we figure out better ways to generate revenue and create new products and bring in new revenue to the company. That's best done through teamwork and collaboration. So I am very confident ... [Pause] We started talking about this more than a year ago, and in hiring the general manager, the publisher [Jim Moroney] has gotten involved in talking about where the line is drawn. He's been very active in that. So have I, so have the journalists involved.
I understand the perception, but time will prove we can do this. We've already done this in other areas in the paper where the journalism's gotten even stronger. FDLuxe is a better product having operated outside of the structure than when it was a weekly section in the newspaper. And I think anybody who knows our sports culture sure as hell knows where the line is drawn.
Dress this up any way you like.
The bottom line is that the sales staff is now in charge of much of the news content. You can't convince me business interests aren't going to be contaminating news judgment.
Justify it as a necessity in an economy that has seen a dropoff in advertising put the entire newspaper industry in peril.
Talk all you want about the need for better integration and product development, etc. etc. yadda, yadda.
There's no way to put lipstick on this. It's just an ugly pig.