Robert Wilonsky, a writer for the altweekly Dallas Observer, passes on a corporate memo that is reportedly causing unease among editorial staffers at the Dallas Morning News. Here’s Wilonsky:
As of yesterday, some section editors at all of the company’s papers, including The News, will now report directly to [a] team of sales managers, now referred to as general managers. In short, those who sell ads for A.H. Belo’s products will now dictate content within A.H. Belo’s products, which is a radical departure from the way newspapers have been run since, oh, forever.
I’ll second that “radical departure” bit. Wilonsky promises to post a long q&a with the paper’s editor, Bob Mong, shortly. I’ll link it when it’s up. Should be interesting, to say the least. UPDATE: Well, here it is.
(Via Romenesko, of course.)
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.