The advertising department consists of three areas: Sales, Design and Marketing. The advertising and marketing manager supervises sales and design and is actively involved in hiring and firing student employees in those areas. (This is very different from the arrangement in the newsroom, where the adviser has no role in hiring, firing or direct supervision.)
SALES: This area consists of student sales representatives and a student sales manager. Each sales rep receives a small stipend and a commission on each ad sold. Reps begin with a list of existing accounts, typically a mix of campus entities, local businesses, national clients and student organizations. They must maintain those accounts and generate new business. In order to earn a commission on an ad, the sales rep must get payment, an insertion order (i.e. a contract) and artwork for the ad.
DESIGN: The ad department typically employs designers who are paid stipends. They create ads in InDesign and export them for placement on pages. These students also build the pages for our publications based on the ads sold and instructions provided by the ad department.
MARKETING: This department takes on duties as defined by the advertising manager, including distribution of some special publications such as Crimson Quarterly.
ADVERTISING DEADLINES: All ads are supposed to be scheduled three days before publication. That gives ad designers two days to complete their work and export the finished ad the day before publication for placement on the page by the production staff. Rarely, the department agrees to accept late ads, particularly those that can skip the design process.
ADVERTISING CONTENT: OU Student Media may refuse any advertising that does not conform to the department’s advertising policy. This policy bans advertising that is defamatory, promotes dishonesty (academic or otherwise), violates local or federal law, or is potentially libelous against a person based on race, age, color, creed, religion, nationality, disability, gender or sexual orientation. The student ad manager is responsible for deciding whether an ad violates the policy. If you are concerned about the content of an ad, bring it to the attention of the student ad manager immediately.
ADVERTISING VS. NEWS: Advertising does not influence news coverage. To protect the editorial integrity of the news organization, journalists often refer to an imaginary “wall” dividing the newsroom and the advertising departments. At The Daily, that wall is solid. Our ad sales representatives are trained to tell clients that when they buy an ad they buy only an ad. They never promise favorable (or any) coverage of an issue or event. If an advertiser tries to pitch them a story, our sales reps urge the advertiser to write or call the editor-in-chief directly. The number of ads sold determines the size of each publication.
AD PLACEMENT POLICY: The advertising staff regulates the placement of all ads in The Daily and any additional special publications. Because advertisers sometimes request placement of ads on certain pages, the numbering of pages is also determined by the advertising staff. An ad designer will complete layouts by Friday morning ahead of a newspaper to be produced and distributed the next Monday. The Daily editor or their designate may request layout changes to meet editorial needs before noon Friday. If a change is requested after that, it must be approved by the advertising manager or director.