'Dallas Morning News' Reorganizes to Bring Sales, Editorial Closer

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Dallas Morning News is reorganizing its sales, marketing and newsroom around 11 "business and content segments" that will have sports and entertainment editors reporting to newly created general managers responsible for increasing advertising.

In a memo to employees, Editor Bob Mong and Senior Vice President of Sales Cyndy Carr said senior sports and entertainment editors will report to the general managers "while retaining a strong reporting relationship to the editor and managing editor."

Mong and Carr called the reorganization "the next step toward becoming the most comprehensive and trusted partner for local businesses in attracting and retaining customers and continuing to generate important, relevant content for our consumers."

The 11 "business and content segments" are sports, health/education, entertainment, travel/luxury, automotive, real estate, communications, preprints/grocery, recruitment, retail/finance, and SMB (small and medium businesses)/interactive.

"Each segment will be led by a General Manager (GM), a newly defined role, each reporting to Cyndy Carr, charged with analyzing and growing the business by developing solutions that meet consumer needs and maximize results for our clients," the memo said. "Their responsibilities will include sales and business development. They will also be working closely with news leadership in product and content development."

The editorial and business-side managers will be expected to collaborate to "bring new products that consumers want to the market more rapidly," the memo said.

"We are proceeding knowing and trusting each other's distinct roles and responsibilities in the same way our News leadership and our Publisher have worked collaboratively for years," the memo said.

Mong and Carr said the "this business/news integration is a progressive step and is strongly supported by the news leaders of both the Sports and Entertainment segments."

Bob Yates, deputy managing editor and executive sports editor is quoted as saying, "As a segment, we have a lot of advantages usually associated with a start-up. We should be able to move much more quickly to take advantage of opportunities. That comes from having greater autonomy that gives us the freedom to develop both advertising and content solutions."

Lisa Kresl, deputy managing editor for Lifestyles, says in the memo: "As a journalist who has participated in many new product launches, I'm excited about the idea of working with a business partner on an arts and entertainment segment. Our high quality, credible content will reach new audiences in a variety of formats."

The entire memo detailing the specific responsibilities is posted at E&P's business-oriented Fitz & Jen blog