The Urge to Merge

Dear Dr. Ink:

Our paper is about to merge the Living section (family, fashion, food, health, teen, home) and Entertainment/Arts. There’s not much of a plan so far, and everyone, especially the 20 or so in the new department, is nervous. What do you think about the merger and what are your tips?

Call me Trepid in Tulsa.

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Answer: It seems that almost any change in newspapers these days inspires trepidation among rank and file journalists — and with good reason. Under the guise of content coherence or production efficiency, the corporate types are busy finding new ways to squeeze out another 1 percent at the margins. Dr. Ink realizes this answer, so far, is tinged with cynicism, so he will now call upon his better angels.

The canny Doc sees nothing inappropriate with housing journalists covering family, fashion, food, health, teens, home, entertainment, and arts in the same domicile. With that encouragement, Doc offers these tips for living in a blended department:

1. On bad days, get together and watch re-runs of “The Brady Bunch.” That blended family sure knew how to keep it together.


2. Work together to make sure all your subject areas remain connected to current issues in the news.


3. Use the new department to think of related subject areas that cross the traditional beats. Who, for example, is covering gaming (from gambling to state lotteries to computer games)?


4. Don’t wait for the bosses to make all the decisions for you grunts. Have some grunt lunches in which your ideas get on the table.


5. Sit everyone down for a showing of the film “Twelve Angry Men.”

Dr. Ink asks his readers for their suggestions: What advice do you have for Trepid in Tulsa about the formation of a new newspaper department? What dangers and opportunities lie ahead?