While the final session of last month’s Atlantic Coast Region meeting was entitled "Best Ideas," the open discussion mostly focused on special sections and advertising. Ron Fritz, Executive Sports Editor for the Baltimore Sun, talked about his paper’s ideas for covering the Division I, II and III NCAA lacrosse championships this year.
Gerry Ahern, the Assistant Managing Editor / Colleges for Yahoo! Sports, and Fritz talked about the increasingly blurring lines between advertising and editorial. Ahern said sponsorships of certain types of content online, particularly video, is prevalent. He did specify that content is still dictated by the editorial department.
"That’s why I feel OK about it," Ahern said. "This is content that we are doing anyway."
Fritz and Ahern each gave ideas for getting advertising more involved.
"Bring them your ideas early," Fritz said. "They’re like everyone else. They’ll be more likely to tackle something with proper notice, rather than having it sprung on them at the last minute."
"And bring them page mock-ups," Ahern added. "Advertising people like to actually see what you’re planning, and have something they can show to potential advertisers."
