After looking through hundreds of comments on Twitter about the “bold” and rather odd reorganization at the Dallas Morning News, one freelance copy editor summarized in a tweet: “Consensus: apocalypse.”
The comments she read through were attached to retweets of a link to a blog of the Daily Observer in Dallas. Robert Wilonsky republished a memo from Bob Mong, Dallas Morning News editor, and Cyndy Carr, senior vice president for sales, that laid out a strategy for “business/news integration” in which editors would report to general managers responsible for different segments of advertising sales.
“I think I just heard the wall fall,” a friend tweeted me. “Journalism: Dead in Dallas,” said another.
Twitter conversations can be an interesting way to gauge opinion. The Web site bit.ly compiles data on links it provides, and it allows a quick look at hundreds of comments added to Twitter messages as people pass along a link.
Reading through bit.ly’s list, at http://bit.ly/info/6d5AHv, one can almost feel the collective gasp.
Here are the comments on the bit.ly list at 3 the afternoon the story came out.They are mostly in order, with Twitter names, links and repetition removed. I didn’t look for the controversial or clever. I didn’t have to. This is pretty much all of them. It’s a long list, but a quick skim will give you an idea:
Okay, this is the worst thing to happen in the history of the printed page
I just died a little
Wait, what?!: wow, Dallas Morning News editors reporting to ad sales
Yikes is right. RT Yikes. Dallas News has a bold new strategy. Yikes.
Mourning the Dallas Morning News. Because what’s happened there means it’s no longer a newspaper. It’s an ad circular
Commenter said: “DMN RIP.”
Holy cow!
Wow. Unbelievable
Ugh; it’s wrong on so many levels.
This is not ok
More pervasive that you’d think…
Really interesting developments in Dallas, where some editors will now report to sales managers
OMG! News is all about ad revenue now.
uh-oh
Dallas Morning News editors now report to ad sales managers. Seems the death of real journalism is upon us
Bold strategy n DMN reorg: Breakng dwn old walls (between sales & edit)
oh yeah, this is good for society.
OMFG. I quit. Journalism R.I.P. “Dallas News, a New “Bold Strategy”: Section Editors Reporting to Sales Managers”
I’m devoting a week’s worth out outrage to this
Surely nothing bad could come of this
Very disturbing: Editors reporting to sales folks.
Editors to report to Sales Managers at The Dallas News (Nothing bad could happen here, right)
OMG! Stop the madness: Dallas Morning News editors now report to sales managers.
So very wrong
Newsroom and Sales integration in Dallas? They say progressive. I say bad idea for content integrity
Really, is it already time to sell your soul? Dallas Morning News editors now report to sales teams.
This memo must be a few years old. Advertisers have been guiding “news” in this fish wrapper for a long time.
Yeah, WTF??
And the wall came crumbling down
Well, the Dallas Morning News has ceased to be a newspaper.
First sign of the apocalypse?
Recipe for total disaster
The end of the world as we know it. Editors reporting to sales people.
Whoa.
Wha- What?
Journalism FAIL
Probably not the best way to foster journalistic integrity
dear, sweet God in heaven, yes. > Did the Dallas Morning News just jump the shark?
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel … rather queasy.
not in my newspaper
wow, Dallas Morning News editors reporting to ad sales
It’s like the journalism end of days
Wow. This is new ground.
•ridiculous.
If all true, this is nuts
Dallas News makes The Onion irrelevant …
I just died a little
Dallas Morning News sections now report to sales staff. In case you needed more bad news about journalism…
Wow indeed! Putting ads in charge of news #journfail
wow, Dallas Morning News eds reporting to ad sales
This is not ok
This is so very wrong
Sad state of affairs in “journalism.”
that’s transparency, but not substantive change
Unbelievable, ridiculous.
Another sign of the journalistic apocalypse facing the newspaper business
My newspaper and journalism friends, it’s a dark day for journalistic integrity
The #DMN has sold its soul.
taking things further: Dallas Morning News section editors to report directly to sales execs
splain it to me, pls. I just don’t see how sales managers bossing news editors can work
If I find out this is happening at B-CS Eagle, I may cry.
What could possibly go wrong, journalistically speaking ?
A huge nail in the nearly finished newspaper coffin
•Scary direction for the DMN.
This looks like a steaming pile of bad judgment
Wow, this is like the most astoundingly bad idea ever
God help us all
I have no words
DMN turns over editorial content to the ad reps. Can we just count that as another dead paper?
Holy schnike
OK, you got me. That was a bigger WTF! than me seeing Tiger all over my front page this morning. WTF!
So much for church/state
Scary
Ahhhh!!
Is this the future of journalism?
La foto de cómo sí desaparecerán los periódicos… y el periodismo. Editores reportando al Jefe de Ventas en Dallas.
They’d B OK w/editors replaced by Enquirer staffers
No. WHAT?!
Editorial to report to sales directorate at Dallas News. Un-bee-LIEVE-able.
this is like the most astoundingly bad idea ever
Wow!
A really different way of doing a newspaper, courtesy of the DMN
So what do the editor and managing editor do now?
Some Dallas Morning News editors now report to SALES managers… Wow.
And people wonder why “news” is so sanitized.
“To a dark place this line of thought will carry us.”
Well, there goes any trust I had in the DMN. Sales department now supervises
Oh. This is not good.
GASP!!!
Whoa
Kinda long, kinda freaky: newspaper hands editorial reigns to the ad sales dept!
Another newspaper bites the dust. The Dallas News hands the newsroom over to the sales dept
Mr. Editor, tear … down … this … wall!