DEPARTMENTS IN A NEWSPAPER

 In weekly and small daily newspaper plants the two general divisions are usually referred to as the office and the shop. The news and the ads are received in the office, where the copy in written and all general business connected with the newspaper is transacted. All the mechanical work pertaining to the newspaper is carried on in the shop. The paper is composed and printed and, in most weekly newspaper shops, considerable job printing is done as well.

In plants of medium size and for large city dailies, six general departments are set up, each requiring persons specially trained by education or experience. They are: editorial-news, business, promotion, mechanical, data processing and administrative. Except for data processing, which has evolved during the 1960’s and 1970’s, these departments have been traditional with newspapers over a very long period of development.

EDITORIAL-NEWS DEPARTMENT

All reading material (except advertising) is assembled in the editorial department. This may call for severall divisions, the number depending on the size of the newspaper. A large newspaper’s editorial news department will have five general divisions. 

a)      Newsroom – All general news in either prepared or processed in the newsroom. The world, national, and state news in brought in by wire for editing either by hand or through electronic editing terminals. The city editor assigns reporters to cover local news stories. News is received by telephone, telegraph and through personal interview. This room is a busy place from early in the day until press time, the intensity increasing as the deadline for copy approaches.

The large city newspaper also may have several specialized news departments – music, art, finance, agriculture, movies, radio, television. Nearly all newspapers have columns devoted exclusively to society and sports, the latter a major division on large newspapers

b)      Copy desk – Located in the newsroom but almost a separate division is the copy desk, where the stories turned in by reporters and checked by the city editor are examined by experienced copyreaders. They eliminate unnecessary and inappropriate words and phrases, correct spelling and punctuation, check facts, indicate paragraphs, and write headlines. When all the copy has been processed for the composing room, page layouts are made showing where stories are to be placed.

c)      Editorial room – In another section of the news department or in a room to themselves are the editors of the editorial pages and the editorial writers. They handle the material that goes on the editorial page, including feature stories, book reviews, and letters from readers; they write the editorial comment reflecting the newspaper’s opinion on important issues.

d)      Picture Division – Metropolitan newspapers each have a large staff of photographers who receive assignments from the picture editor, city editor or managing director. Space must be provided for photographic supplies and darkroom work. This division works closely with the newsroom.

e)      Library – Connected with the news department, particularly in larger newspaper plants, is a library, popularly called the morgue. The library contains material that is considered ‘dead copy’ but may be used again to ‘background’ or fill out current stories. Filed here are clippings from past issues of the paper – stories of local history and of persons prominent in the community; facts about the city and county government and the city, county and state budgets; and the financial statements of banks and savings and loan associations. These facts are clipped as they appear and catalogued alphabetically so that they may be found easily.

During a war many pictures of martial activities, of soldiers in camp or in action, and of important officers are filed. Mats and cuts of people involved in national affairs and in local community also are filed in the morgue. Pictures of churches, school buildings, public buildings of every sort, bridges, important highways, parks, and the like are all subject to repeated use and must be preserved.

In the library there are reference books – an encyclopedia, a complete history of  the country, states and local community if available, maps of the world, ocean charts, a globe, a book of quotations, an up-to-date dictionary, books pertaining to military operations, reference magazines, and trade journals. The larger the newspaper, the greater the demand for precise, diversified information, making the need for an adequate library imperative.

In the library also are bound files of the newspaper, files of competing papers, or microfilms of each. These will be consulted constantly not only by the editorial staff but by people of the community and visiting newspaper and magazine writers.

 

BUSINESS DEPARTMENT

The business department is responsible for the efficient operation of all the newspapers revenue producing stages. It directs sales and collections. It receives, expends and invests money. It supervises everything pertaining to the business side of the newspaper, including advertising, circulation and job printing.

a)      Advertising division: This is the most important section of the business department and is divided according to the types of advertising produced.

First, there is the group that prepares copy and sells space to local advertisers. This must be a smoothly organized sales staff because it has all local merchants, manufacturers and service institutions as prospective customers.

Second, there is the department of general advertising, sometimes called foreign or national advertising. This department looks after advertising form outside sources, usually the advertising of distant manufacturers and jobbers who have a product sold by local dealers or for which the company wishes to find a dealer.

A third essential department deals with the smallest ads – the classifieds – and requires capable direction. The classified ad department brings in valuable revenue and at the same time builds much good will for the newspaper.

Some newspapers have still another division to handle legal advertising – publication of official notices that must be run in connection with settlements brings in valuable revenue and at the same time builds records of all kinds from city, state, etc.

 

b)      Circulation division: Circulation is the lifeblood of the newspaper. Without it the newspaper would carry no advertising and without advertising the newspaper could not survive.

To perform its important selling, delivering and collecting duties effectively, the circulation division is split into several units. The largest is the group that handles the city circulation. Making the paper a welcome daily visitor to every home is a task that requires careful supervision, a large staff and hard work. On the large city newspapers hundreds of carriers and other employees are used in distribution, while many serve as salespeople and collectors.

Because the publisher normally likes to extend the influence of the newspaper as far into the surrounding territory as possible, the circulation division is organized to obtain subscribers in other towns. Papers are sold through carriers, usually boys residing in the towns.

One of the continuing problems of the circulation division is to find suitable transportation for long distances. Newspapers must be on their way while the news is still fresh. Consequently, large city newspapers have a transportation or traffic department that provides trucks, cars and motorcycles for delivery to distant points and also keeps close check on airline, train and bus service.

 

c)      Job printing division: Smaller newspapers often do job printing in a separate department in their plants. Business houses want stationary, forms, statements, catalogs, circulars and broadsides printed. The public wants wedding announcements, invitations, birth announcements, club programs and other items.

 

PROMOTION DEPARTMENT

Newspapers sometimes are accused of not taking their own medicine. It is said that they urge others to advertise but seldom make use of advertising themselves. This may have been true in earlier days, but it is not so in the majority of newspaper plants today.

Most newspaper managers realize the value of promoting their own wares, telling readers how well the classified ads pull, showing merchants how to increase sales and turnover, calling readers attention to outstanding features in the news columns, and urging subscribers to send the paper to relatives and friends. Promotion has become a specialized business. The person who can produce attractive promotion material and organize campaigns is valuable on the newspaper staff.

 MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT

 Marvelous machinery today does much of the work that was done by hand years ago. New devices are continuously being developed to save time and labor and to improve the quality of the mechanical departments work. Plants using the newer cold type or phototype processes, instead of the traditional hot metal method of setting type embody the following functions: composing, makeup, photographic plate making, and press work. In the few plants that still depend on the hot metal processes; this department has four main divisions: composing room, stereotyping room, engraving room and pressroom.

In traditional hot metal plants, the copy sent down by the news and advertising departments goes first to the composing room. News copy or straight matter is ‘set’ by operators at typesetting machines. Pictures and other illustrations are sent to the engraving room where cuts are made. Advertising copy is set by machine and by hand, and everything is then assembled in steel chases, page size.

These chases are sent to the stereotyping room, where plates are cast from molten metal for the press. If the press is a flatbed press instead of a rotary, the forms are sent to the press without being stereotyped.

DATA PROCESSING DEPARTMENT 

The addition of the computer to newspaper operations has necessitated the development of an entirely new section of highly trained personnel and sophisticated equipment. From the smallest publications to the largest some degree of reliance on data processing methods is becoming generally standardized. All departments are affected by the application of the ‘new technology’ and are thus closely interrelated with the data processing department. The nature of this interaction is made clear in ensuing portions of the text.

ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT

 In a properly functioning newspaper, the many independent operations must be coordinated by a strong administrative unit. This unit is made up of the owners and executives whose duty is to establish and direct consistent, uniform policies.

The administrative department exercises authority over all other departments of the newspaper. Directly responsible to it are the editor in chief and the business manager, who in turn exercise full control over the ‘news side’ and the ‘business side’. The mechanical superintendent, while in complete charge of the production department, is in most cases responsible to the business manager, not directly to the administrative department.

One of the important responsibilities of the administration is to see that efficiency is maintained and that each department understands the close relationship it has with all the others.

NEWSPAPER RESEARCH

 Competition has become too keen and financial risks too great for publishers to depend entirely upon any ‘sixth sense’ in arriving at sound business judgements. This is especially because publishers have, at their disposal, valuable techniques and instruments of newspaper research that enable them to minimize the risks of misinformation and guesswork.

Research in journalism is a fairly recent development and newspapers that benefit regularly from its services are in the undisputed minority. Research in journalism has merely scratched the surface of its potential.

Research is the act of probing for accurate, reliable, useful information and of organizing that information so that sound conclusions can be drawn. Its scope, its complexity, or its cost can vary according to needs and objectives.

Whether simple and inexpensive or elaborate and costly, research that is meaningful to the publisher recognizes the importance of making a genuine contribution to the intelligence of the business – either in producing a better publication for readers or in contributing to more effective use of the medium by advertisers. Research is a means, not an end in itself.

Newspaper research is generally aimed in one of the three directions: the market, the newspaper itself, or the products merchandised through newspaper advertising.

MARKET RESEARCH

Through research, a newspaper can get to know –

1. A sound basis for conducting the overall business operation – a knowledge of the area served by the newspaper
2. An understanding of the relationship between advertising and sales in the community, insuring better informed ad salesmen
3. Something tangible to offer prospective local or national advertiser who want to know what they are getting for their money.
4. Ample material for good self promotional mailing pieces or advertising layouts
5. Interesting local information for news or feature stories.

The chief problem in undertaking a community survey is identifying and utilizing the sources of reliable market information. Nearly all statistics dealing with business and economic conditions are collected and recorded by some governmental or professional agency.

Publishers who wish to arm themselves with facts about the market their newspapers serve must know first of all what kinds of facts are of value; then where they may be found, and finally, how they may be used to better the business operation.

Kinds of facts

Population factors such as age, sex, education, occupation, incomes are of great importance. Housing factors such as values of homes, number of houses with TV sets, and number of automobile owners provide extremely valuable data. Any information that reflects the wants and needs, the preferences and the ability to pay of the members of the market of a newspaper is of value to some or all of its advertisers.

Public institutions in the local community also furnish a wealth of information regarding the newspapers market area (e.g. libraries)

How to use the facts

The beginner in newspaper research should start with something simple. It is possible to use facts already at hand or quickly available. For maximum utilization the information should be mailed to a selected list of advertisers and agencies.

Simple statistical devices such as percentages, indexes, averages, bar charts, line charts and pie graphs add to the effectiveness of the research

Research on the newspaper

Editors get letters from readers expressing approval or disapproval of policies advocated by the news paper, occasional comments on content or format, or other observations of extreme interest to those who produce the newspaper and are naturally concerned about the reader acceptance of their product. But what about the 90 or 95 percent of readers who never write letters to the editor? Can an editor of publisher be sure they fell the way 5 or 10 percent who write letters to the editor do?

Since no two newspapers are identical in format, policies, competitive factor or need for media research, no standardized patterns for research on the newspaper itself can be set.

However, newspaper research does divide itself into several areas:

1. The newspaper as a publication. Here the information deals with its contents, policies, reader service and community service records.
2. Circulation, how many buy the newspaper, who they are, and where they live.
3. Acceptance of the newspaper by the public.
4. Technical data such as advertising rates, mechanical specifications, type of printing available, management standards, operating costs, and any auxiliary services offered by the newspaper.

THE NEWSPAPER AS A PUBLICATION

This kind of information is most frequently used to show the content of the newspaper and the extent of the service it renders to its readers and to its community. Content may include description of news coverage, wire services, local coverage, feature writers, picture services, columnists, comics and specialized sections.

Political policies of the newspaper, the manner of handling news, the type and presentation of ‘art’ rewrite of news stories, editorial policy and the way local news is player are a vital part of the policy data.

Reader service includes special events for the amusement, information or education fo readers, above and beyond the mere publication of an informative and instructive newspaper. A survey of such services provides the publisher with promotional material of striking interest and significance.

As in all research, great care must be taken that material is presented without bias and preferably without boasting. The data developed within this area are chiefly of value as a means of picturing the personality of the newspaper, thus pointing out truthfully the type of readers who have been attracted through its behaviour patterns.

THE NEWSPAPERS CIRCULATION

By means of surveys, publishers and circulation managers learn what is being done to improve newspaper distribution by agents, which papers have increased subscription prices and to what extent. Procedure, transportation and methods of distribution can be studied.

ACCEPTANCE OF THE NEWSPAPER

The readership survey is the most common research technique for determining the reactions of readers to new features, news presentation methods, advertising copy and display, factors of format and typography, and page position. This type of study is ordinarily conducted by means of a questionnaire or a checklist on which reader’s preferences are recorded.

The most extensive readership survey among newspaper is ‘the continuing study of newspaper reading’ conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation in cooperation with the Bureau of Advertising of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. They came up with some important conclusions:-

1. Editorials get higher readership during wartime, while comics and society and sports items undergo varying degrees of readership loss. The pattern changes during post war years.
2. Front pages command the highest readership, pictures rank second, sports pages place third among men and society pages are third among women.
3. Men show greatest interest in pictures related to events, while women prefer photos of people
4. Picture pages and outstanding news photos attract greatest attention, even outranking top scoring news stories.

The values of such studies to management and editorial executives of a newspaper is quite obvious. These readership studies have a financial value for the advertising department in testing the power of copy, color or position in advertising. Such surveys make their greatest contribution when the reports are studied for trends and principles rather than for specified details.

TECHNICAL DATA

The purpose of assembling technical data concerning the newspaper itself is manifold: to calculate expenditure, to evaluate the newspaper on the basis of costs, to determine mechanical efficiency, to compare business methods, to prepare a list of specifications for advertisements, or any number of similar investigations of the newspapers services and facilities.

Some newspaper publishers have considered it advisable to have their newspaper operations studied from the broad standpoint of management efficiency. In the case of the Cincinnati, Ohio ‘Enquirer’, a preliminary audit was completed by an outside organization specializing in management surveys. This was followed by frequent checks during a four period, providing valuable information about the newspapers corporate structure, its production and business policies, equipment, personnel and prospects for improvement in all departments at a time when it was needed most.

The audit revealed that some changes in operation would be helpful, including sharper coverage of late local news and promptness in meeting deadlines, overhaul of the accounting department particularly in its relationship to classified advertising, closing the gap between policymaking and execution and rearranging work schedule.

An extensive survey of this kind, done by capable analysis and accepted by management, could be of immeasurable value to any newspaper organization. It is not often, however, that newspaper owners feel the need for so general an analysis of their operation. They prefer to analyze their departments separately and to follow each study with definite steps to correct weaknesses.

Before changing from an 8 column to a 9 column format, the Sidney, Ohio ‘News’ on its own account made a newsprint conservation survey and discovered that it would save nearly $6000 a year by changing its format for its 12,000 daily circulation. Newspapers could also conduct cost studies based on money spent for salaries, depreciation, equipment, etc.

PRODUCT RESEARCH

Its value lies in providing the manufacturer (of a product) with information on the acceptance or sale of a specific brand in a newspaper’s specific market. It is more complicated and frequently more costly than newspaper research.

Consumer records are tabulated to show factors such as brands purchased, points of purchase, shopping habits, etc.

WHAT PUBLISHERS WANT

An analysis of publishers views on newspaper research conducted at Syracuse University yielded the following conclusions:

-          research can be useful in solving operational problems

-          to solve long range industry wide problems rather than day to day problems or those peculiar to individual newspapers etc

research must be used with great skill and with appropriate restraint. Properly handled, it can provide the newspaper with invaluable data for decision making, for profit control and for enhancement of the newspaper product and its promotion.

PROPRIETORY CONCERNS (OWNING NEWSPAPERS)

By international standards a lot of people own Indian-language newspapers. These owners perform the role of connecting their regions to ‘India’ and ‘India’ to their regions. They do this unconsciously. Their calculated goals are influence and profit and not necessarily ‘national integration’,

From the 1980’s – earlier in some regions of south India – proprietors of Indian-language newspapers began to enjoy a growing deference from politicians and officials. Just as advertisers slowly came to believe that Indian-language newspapers reached people with real purchasing power, politicians began to realize that Indian-language newspapers now influenced very large number of voters. From the 1977 national elections, the electorate seemed less and less amenable to the old ways of lining up voters through local bigwigs and landowners. These more autonomous and unpredictable voters were also more likely to be literate and to see newspapers. And newspapers were more interested than ever before in the lives of such people. The people who owned such newspapers thus assumed a new importance.

Proprietors had to become capitalists to survive. Some were already capitalists. Others were traders with printing presses who transformed their businesses into capitalist enterprises. Still others failed, and their newspapers folded. Individual proprietors sometimes brought to their newspapers a crusader’s zeal for a particular cause etc.

-         Diversity

If one looked at newspapers in India in all languages, ownership was fairly widely dispersed, especially compared to countries like Australia, Canada or United States. In India it proved difficult to run an outstandingly successful newspaper in more than one language area. This was because of competing proprietors.

The diversity of owners helped in spreading and localizing of newspapers from the late 1970’s. As printing technology became easier and cheaper, it became possible for the owners of smaller newspapers to expand.

-         Traders to capitalists

The origins of newspapers explained aspects of their ownership and capacity to survive. Eleven of the family owned newspapers were founded during the freedom struggle against the British or within a year of independence. The owning family created its newspaper partly to further a cause and gain influence and large profits were rarely the principal motivation. Once independence was achieved, however, the newspaper became a financial asset – perhaps a family’s major asset. It was possible to make a profit from an Indian-language newspaper, but such a newspaper could be sold only with difficulty. Some families were almost trapped into the newspaper business.

The Indian Express Empire of Ramnath Goenka (1902 – 91) was the grandest version of newspapers with some link to the ‘freedom struggle’. Goenka’s origins and experience with Indian-language newspapers illustrated widely shared aspects of newspaper proprietorship. All of the eight large chains that controlled Hindi newspapers were owned by similar, non-Brahmin but commercial-caste families. The owners of the Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali newspapers came from similar backgrounds. 

In south India the social origins of proprietarily families were slightly more varied. The Kandathil family of Malayala Manorama was Syrian Christian. The Kasturi family of the Hindu were Brahmins, but they published only English language publications.

India’s diversity of languages, federal structure and language policy helped to sustain proprietors of Indian-language newspapers. Of the twenty-five states, thirteen had one of India’s official languages as their state language of education and administration. Most of the remainder used Hindi. The newspapers that propelled these entrenched languages had guaranteed readerships in schools and offices, and as readerships grew, so did the importance of the proprietor who influenced readers. Such proprietors became leading members of regional elites, and once so established, they could make it difficult for others to encroach on their territory.

The important contrast with other countries was that no Indian newspaper was a listed company on the stock exchange.

The twelve big newspapers that dated from the independence struggle or its immediate aftermath in 1948 were by no means extravagantly idealistic or commercially naïve. But most began small. From the 1970’s, as capitalist pressures and practices spread, so did the pressure for newspaper expansion, and an emphasis within newspapers on modern management and maximizing profits.

Because Indian-language newspapers were almost all family affairs, they were especially vulnerable to the problems that arise when a new generation takes over from its seniors. An able heir produced a successful newspaper; less able heirs frittered away the inheritance.