In a move with parallels to USA Today's new Open Air magazine, The Los Angeles Times is planning to transfer control of its monthly magazine from its newsroom to its business operations, The New York Times says today."The arrangement would flout the tradition at most newspapers," the NYT says, "which keep business operations, like advertising and circulation, completely separate from the editorial department, which controls decisions about the contents of news and feature pages."
As I understand its history, the quarterly outdoor fun-focused Open Air began as a creature of USA Today's newsroom before it was turned over to the more advertiser-friendly USA Weekend -- a supplement inserted in more than 600 Sunday newspapers.
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It's USA Weekend. And it's not a business/advertising arm of USAT.
ReplyDelete@4:44 pm: Thank you. I've fixed that. And, indeed, USA Weekend is a separate entity from USA Today -- that is why I used the word "parallels."
ReplyDeleteHow are the two events parallel? You're talking about the LA Times shifting control of its magazine to its business operations, which would "flout the tradition at most newspapers." USAT has not shifted Open Air to a business operation. USAW is another editorial component of the company that happens to have magazine experience. So I don't think they're parallel.
ReplyDelete@9:25 am: Note my use of the phrase "more advertiser-friendly." Compared to USAT, is that not true?
ReplyDeleteWhat *exactly* do you mean by "more advertiser-friendly"?
ReplyDeleteUSAW doesn't handle Open Air ad sales.