Veteran journalist Allan Mutter in his Reflections of a Newsosaur sees possibilities in the Dallas Morning News’ decision to put advertising executives in charge of news editors. His hope is that “the creative energy and constructive skepticism of the newsroom will rub off on the ad guys.”
“The idea is to develop products that will please readers and advertisers alike, leading to fatter top lines and continued employment for what’s left of the newspaper’s shrunken staff. What’s not to like about that? …
“Any fair analysis of the agonies suffered by the newspaper business will show that the primary problem facing the industry is a loss of advertising revenue. This results directly from an epic and ongoing lack of imagination and innovation on the part of publishers and advertising executives, not in most cases on the part of newsrooms.”
Journalists “appear to be the ones most likely to be motivated and equipped to ask such tough questions as what advertisers really think, what readers really want and, most importantly, what newspapers can do to regain the engagement of the advertisers and readers who have forsaken them.”
But, advertising managers who have been under seige for the last few years as their old ways have failed are the bosses in this arrangement. They’ll have to have pretty healthy egos to listen as their new subordnates tell them how they should be doing their jobs.