Web Newsrooms Needn't Be Loss Leaders

By: Carl Sullivan Separation of church and state is a basic tenet of journalism, but that doesn't mean online newsrooms have to be loss leaders, suggests Peter Krasilovsky, a West Coast-based consultant with Borrell Associates Inc. of Portsmouth, Va.

Krasilovsky believes Web news departments can maintain their editorial integrity while still creating products that could become new revenue streams. The structure and organization of online news departments is key, he argues. "Our hypothesis was how can you be selling advertising on your news-centric site if you're not going to be entrepreneurial about how you present your news," Krasilovsky says. The theory is that your online efforts are less likely to be entrepreneurial if they're run by the print side.

To get a better understanding of how news Web sites work, Borrell surveyed 19 newspaper executives with online newsroom responsibilities last month. All were large dailies. The results of the small survey aren't necessarily conclusive, Krasilovsky says, but he called it part of a larger effort to spur newspapers to reconsider how their Web editorial staffs work with the business side.

Five of the 19 report to the print newspaper's editor, while 14 report to the head of online services. The survey found that those newsrooms reporting to the online head often work closely with the print staff.

In terms of physical location, only three of the respondents sit directly with the print newspaper's staff. Most are in separate locations. But again, many online staffs are increasing their presence in print newsrooms with special online news desks.

Respondents were asked: "Are you developing news-related advertising opportunities and are they developed in coordination with your newspaper's ad teams and editorial?" Borrell found that there are some efforts to coordinate activities, "but there appeared to be little conscious effort to make the online newsroom a profit center itself." Krasilovsky says the question might have been rephrased to get more insightful results.

One executive said his online newsroom could develop more news-oriented products with revenue opportunities if it had more independent authority.

Krasilovsky says Web editorial teams shouldn't be afraid to dream up new sections or products that both serve readers and generate new revenues. "We do that in sports content all the time ... building new sections around the St. Louis Cardinals [for example]," he says. "I think there are opportunities beyond sports."