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| Lesson
One: Your Newspaper Part 2: The Editorial Department |
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The editorial department is responsible for virtually everything that isn't advertising that appears in the newspaper. Their main goal is to report the news accurately and in a reader-friendly way. The amount of news that appears in the newspaper usually has very little to do with what's newsworthy that day or week. Instead most newspapers count up all the advertisements, determine what size newspaper would be needed just to fit all the advertisements, then adds enough editorial pages for editorial to make up 40% of the newspaper. Significantly less editorial than this and the paper will look too full of ads and stop resembling a newspaper. Any more editorial and there won't be enough advertising revenue to make money.
In fact, at newspapers where I've worked, we would be able to predict which newspaper we competed with was about to go under based on this advertising to editorial ratio. The editorial department is then informed how many pages they need to write to fill the newspaper with 40% editorial.
Over the years, the advertising and editorial departments have been fairly separate, each contributing different elements to the final product. But in the last few years--these departments seem to be working together more often. In the future, you may encounter local businesses who, instead of purchasing advertising, or in addition to purchasing advertising, may ask you to make arrangements for an editorial story to run about their business. In fact, some advertisers, because of the money they spend with a particular newspaper, actually expect that a story be run with the paper from time to time.
Although your editorial department may actually be willing to run a story of newsworthiness on one of your advertisers, most won't write a story simply because the advertiser's spending a lot of money. In fact, your success as a salesperson hinges on the fact that your editorial department won't compromise the editorial integrity of the newspaper simply to make an advertiser happy. First and foremost, their job is to put out a quality product every day or week that people will read.
It's safe to assume that countless advertising salespeople have approached your editorial staff in the past to try to get a story in about one of their advertisers. So be extremely careful in both accepting anything from your advertisers related to the editorial side as well as approaching the editorial department about running a story on your advertisers. When approached by an advertiser asking for help getting a story in, explain to the advertiser that although advertising revenue may pay the editorial staff's salaries, they have their own criteria regarding what is newsworthy. Do not give the advertiser any assurances that the story will get in, and certainly don't let them make the sale of the ad contingent upon publishing a story. If you feel you have an advertiser with a newsworthy story about his business, ask your manager for guidance on how to introduce this to the editorial staff.
In my personal experience, I've found that most of the time the business has a better chance of getting a story in if it approaches the editorial department itself. That way, the editorial department might feel less resistant, less like they're compromising the editorial content to help ad revenues. Also, be prepared that some advertisers you talk to will get upset with things your editorial staff writes. There's not much you can do there except tell them that although the advertiser might not agree with what written in the newspaper at all times, that people are reading it and responding to ads in it, and isn't that what's really important?
