In Pittsburgh … Advertising’s view: People must get along

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At newspapers across the country, advertising departments scrambled to deal with the impact of the terrorist attacks.

Consider the Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette. Director of Advertising Scott Brooks says the ad department was intimately involved from the very first word of the attacks, redesigning ad layouts and dealing with affected advertisers such as airlines.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the Post-Gazette published an afternoon extra devoid of ads, and advertising in the next day’s editions was pushed far back to create open space for news content and display. Such dislocations continued in the following days.

In fact, many advertisers pulled their ads, among them airlines, travel-related businesses and car dealers – the latter, Brooks says, out of a belief that life in America would be at a virtual standstill for days and that no one would be buying cars.

Brooks says the Post-Gazette handled the crisis well, largely because of the close relationships among editorial, advertising and production. "We spent a lot of time talking," he says.

Performing well under circumstances such as these requires people to get along.

When will life get back to normal for advertising departments? An exhausted Brooks says he doesn't know. The story seems likely to gather more momentum in the days and weeks ahead, and that means that life for ad staffs will continue to be tumultuous.

"It's all contingent on what America decides to do," Brooks says.

Curt Hazlett is a seminar associate with the American Press Institute. A former managing editor of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, he has worked as an editor at the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times and as a business reporter in the Chicago bureau of Reuters.