Getting News And Sales To Coexist

By Andrew Krukowski
TVNewsCheck, Apr 13 2010, 11:15 AM ET

Just as the daily conversations between the sales and news departments push and pull against one another, participants during the NAB Show's "Stepping Up News, Stepping Up Revenue" panel verbally jostled with one another to figure out the ethical grey area of news advertising.

Moderators Louis Wall, president of Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, and Tom Bier, station manager of WISC Madison, Wis., led an open-forum discussion of the foibles of having sales and news departments occasionally stepping on one another's toes as they either sell ads or cover news.
"It's a process," Wall said, talking about the ebb and flow of both departments. "It's a give and take process."

Wall said news and sales people are very similar, in that they are driven and try to do the right thing.

"Whether we like it or not, [broadcast news] is a business. The goal is to make money," said Steve Schwaid, director of news and digital content with Atlanta's CBS affiliate, WGCL.

Schwaid added, however, that news people should be able to tell when an advertising opportunity is erring on the side of ethically incorrect.

"The line is always moving. The issue is: Are you comfortable with it? What does your gut say? If your gut says, ‘This is wrong, this is bad,' then it probably is."

Viewers are also quick to pick up on curious advertising decisions, as well.

In a 2006 RTNDA study, 35% of viewer responses said they believe businesses and advertisers have "a lot of influence" on what is seen on the local news. In contrast, 7.2% of news directors surveyed said businesses have "a lot of influence."

Try as they might, sales and news departments have to deal with one another in order to run a financially successful station. Some attendees groused about the idea of forcing sponsorships on sports or traffic coverage, while others suggested embracing the discussion of what will work best for the station as a whole.

Scott Heath, general sales manager of San Diego's KSWB, said sales and news departments need to have an organic conversation with one another.

He said his station overhauled its news 20 months ago, and the changes made have made the product look bigger and better. Some of the changes included adding a giant canvas map for weather, detailed with logos from local businesses.

The question news and sales must ask themselves, Heath said, is "what is it we want to create together?"