Line between editorial and advertising

May I third that remark.

To borrow a running joke from my old college radio station, commercial broadcasting is "Advertorial Infotainment"

 

I think I speak for everyone who has ever worked at a small newspaper when I say this: A pox on your house.

 

It was increasingly smudged in print and disappeared altogether on the Internet.

 

If it saves jobs I don't care anymore.

 

You only cover us when we serve Salisbury steak!

 

If anyone thinks there is no interference or input from sales on the editorial section, I suggest they try to do a story on ways to save money and avoid ripoffs when buying a new car.

Good luck.

 

Last shop I was at, the local hospital badgered the ME into doing a huge fluffer piece on them that was going to run front and center. I really with I recall what it was, but some huge piece of news broke that night, and the copy desk wasn't allowed to throw the story back in the can for later, or to move it out of front and center. Big, gripping story be damned, that was our center piece. Sigh......

 

In their defense, Salisbury steak is the premiere meal of the week, so it doesn't hurt to check in once in a while on Shepard's Pie night.

 

That was brought up at today's meeting. If we don't have a real managng editor by then and I'm still doing that AND sports, I'm going to have nightmares.

 

A story on an online retailer or shopping in the big city is a fireable offense at my shop.

 

Ape, you're a better man than I

 

I figured out a pretty good way to do our annual progress section: Allow all of our mayors, township supervisors and school superintendents to write guest columns. I edit them for style, but that's about it. If they don't respond, oh well.

This way, at least we're honest with our readers about what this is (and it saves our reporters a lot of work).

I've got a decision to make, though, come January: One of our mayors is under federal indictment for kickbacks, but he's still in office. The state appointed an emergency financial manager (for the second time in city history), so there's a tug of war about who's in charge. I'm leaning toward the emergency manager.