Independent Tradition Stifles Growth, Cox Declares p.9

By: Mark fitzgerald Outgoing NAA chairman says integrity has hardened into arrogance
that alienates readers; no sin in upbeat coverage of advertisers

Newspapering's enduring traditions of ornery independence is stifling the industry's growth, the chairman of North America's largest newspaper association says.
Opening the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention in Dallas April 20, chairman David C. Cox argued that newspapers have allowed a proud tradition of editorial integrity and independence to harden into an arrogance that repels readers and businesses.
"While many other for-profit enterprises were frantically reengineering and restructuring around customer needs, we spent too many years ignoring them ? perhaps believing we would surrender our editorial independence if we made a serious effort to listen to our customers," said Cox, the retiring president and chief executive officer of Cowles Media Co.

'not a sacrament'
Cox declared that he is a "to-the-death defender of newspaper independence," but at the same time argued that "the divide between editorial and advertising is important, but it's not sacrament." Newspapers as an industry ignore good stories about advertisers and prominent political and community figures for fear they will appear to be pandering, Cox argued.
"The world as we know it will not end in fire if there is a positive news story about an advertiser ? even one who takes out a double-truck," Cox said.
"I am not advocating that marketing people supervise journalists or control sections of the newspaper," he said. "We, in senior management, have to make it possible for journalists to feel that they can write favorably about advertisers, politicians and community institutions when deserved ? and to do so without feeling somehow tainted in the profession."
This spirit of independence also prevents the industry from working together, Cox said.
One example: national advertising. Just as the newspaper is re-emerging as the only true national mass medium ? a phenomenon sped by the increasing audience-targeting of other print media and the fragmentation of television ? it is unable to exploit this advantage fully in winning national advertising.
"Our pricing, production standards and systems are so varied we are difficult to buy on a national basis. We have to change that ? and we can't take 10 years to do something like SAUs again," Cox said, referring to the long process of adopting the Standard Advertising Unit.
"Let's admit that as an industry we are not yet uniformly quality-driven nor customer-focused," Cox said. "We are better, but in too many ways we remain too customer-independent to meet the demands of the new market realities and challenges."

?("Our pricing, production standards and systems are so varied we are difficult to buy on a national basis. We have to change that ? and we can't take 10 years to do something like SAUs again." ) [Caption]
?(David Cox, outgoing NAA chairman and outgoing Cowles Media Co. CEO) [Caption]
?(E&P Web Site: http://www.mediainfo. com) [Caption]
?(copyright: Editor & Publisher April 25, 1998) [Caption]