Church V. State 2.0

The newspaper industry has long sought to maintain at least the appearance of editorial independence, with those poor corrupt souls in the advertising department kept well away from the holy editorial ground.

That independence was a luxury which could be permitted in the controlled environment within which newspapers operated in past centuries — typically the papers had a monopoly on newsgathering and publishing within their regions, or at least a cosy duopoly which allowed competing publications to divvy up the market between them. Advertisers who wanted to reach a publication’s readers had little choice but to accept the enforced distinction between editorial and advertising content — including the possibility that their hardselling on advertising pages might be undone by critical content within the hallowed editorial ground. 

Alas, we’ve all moved on, newsgathering and dissemination is in the hands of amateurs (oh the indignity!) and professionals alike, and newspapers are finding themselves more and more dependent on their websites to be the flagships of their brand. And those sites have no monopoly at all, but have to compete with TV and radio websites, citizen bloggers and all manner of ‘new’ news media, both for reader attention and ever more capricious advertising dollars. As Forbes.com reported last week, “the newspaper industry’s increasingly grim financial outlook leaves editors with little choice but to work across the aisle” with those crassly commercial sales people.

It’s not necessarily an easy adjustment for the journalistic profession. Noted Forbes:

As Linda Grist Cunningham took the podium to talk about integrating editorial and advertising content at a newspaper industry powwow, the Rockford Register Star executive editor couldn’t resist cracking a joke.

“I feel like I’m at an AA meeting,” she said during a gathering of newspaper editors and publishers in Washington this week. “I’m Linda Cunningham, and I’m in the business of making money.”

The challenge is global. Here in New Zealand, journalists at the NZ Herald post stories to their website first, rather than wait for the nightly newsprint to roll off the presses — otherwise they risk being scooped by anyone and everyone. So up go those stories onto www.nzherald.co.nz, usually accompanied by those insidious Google AdWords, providing contextual advertising based on the very editorial words that once were so sancrosanct.

There once was a time when you could (usually) rely on the newspaper production team to ensure that your story was kept well away from any commercialising influences. Nowadays, however, write a story about (for example) property, whether positive or critical, and your article will be accompanied by classified ads that wax lyrical about the joys of property from a dozen different perspectives. As far as a casual reader is concerned, your newspaper brand will be seen to be endorsing the relationship between your story and the advertisers’ points of view.  

As newspaper print revenues decline, online advertising increases in importance. And if you want to attract significant online advertising dollars, you have to provide relevant content. With an infinite supply of possible advertising outlets, marketers are looking for relevance, for targeted and useful content that provides substance and value alongside the advertising messages.

What was once unthinkable is now commonplace.