It all starts with mutual respect and honesty, Pearson says. Such working relationships are common in newsrooms, but in this case Scarritt is the News editor and Pearson the circulation director. Overall, newspapers took a drubbing, down 0.7 percent daily and Sunday over the same period in 1998, according to analysis of the ABC report by the Newspaper Association of America. That attitude no doubt persists at some papers, but most editors and circulation managers today understand that many factors affect starts and stops. Editors at the News have worked shifts in the circulation department s telemarketing area to understand how they work, Scarritt says.
Editors also discuss major stories with circulation managers as they are developed.
Pearson says editors stop him in the parking lot to ask how the numbers look. We re creating a multilevel awareness, Pearson says. He noted a proposed gardening section that was developed jointly by circulation and news to boost Thursday readership. Close cooperation between the newsroom and circulation is a common theme at papers that showed circulation gains. What I do impacts what he s trying to do in circulation very much, Rieger says, noting that he reviews all circulation stop cards, notifies circulation when new features are planned and discusses circulation with his staff of 21 covering the hometown of the University of Oklahoma.