4 tips for bridging sales, editorial silos for revenue projects

This is a series on Better News to a) showcase innovative/experimental ideas that emerge from the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative and b) share replicable tactics that benefit the news industry as a whole. 

These insights were shared during a live Q&A session with alumni of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program in March 2025. This piece features tips from Kenny Katzgrau – publisher of the hyperlocal news outlet Red Bank Green, best known as the creator of the digital ad manager Broadstreet.

Successful projects to support revenue are built on a foundation of forward-thinking strategy and constant collaboration. In news organizations, communicating across departments often means bridging silos between different teams with their own norms and ways of working.

Kenny Katzgrau, a software engineer turned digital ad platform CEO and publisher understands the various technical, editorial and business hurdles that staff in media organizations regularly face. He shared these insights during a virtual Q&A session for Table Stakes alumni in March 2025:

Find your ‘ViBE’

According to Katzgrau, an organization’s mission and vision are the most important information to communicate within news organizations. Together, they are the destination and “the flag on the top of the mountain” for everyone to climb toward.

“If you don’t have a place that we’re traveling toward, we’re not getting there and we’re not going to be able to recruit the right people to get there either,” he said. “Great leadership is basically finding the right people who want to go to that place too, and synthesizing their individual goals.”

If everyone on staff knows how their roles align with the bigger picture, they’re more likely to understand the organization itself and invest in what it stands for.

Katzgrau reflected back to 2023 when he purchased the hyperlocal news outlet Red Bank Green and became its publisher.

“When I first took over Red Bank Green, I established what I called the ViBE, or vibe concept,” he said. “It’s internal, but it really just stands for ‘Vision Business Everyone.’ How am I going to establish a vision for Red Bank green that incorporates the businesses as well as my readers?”

Red Bank Green’s vision is to serve Red Bank, NJ and tell its story for 100 years – “a news organization that lasts in the midst of so much uncertainty,” Katzgrau said.

To get clarity on your mission, vision and how revenue goals can tie in, leadership teams can hold quarterly meetings to talk about the organization’s short and long-term goals, vision, core values and ask questions that get to the heart of the work, such as:

• Who are we as a company?
• What do we do for our community?
• What brings readers to our site?
• Why do small businesses want to work with us?
• What is the impact of our work?
• What is the greater meaning in what we do?

Then, leadership can share what came out of these discussions in larger “state of the company” gatherings and “same page” meetings with staff.

Katzgrau recommends reading: The Role Core Values Play in Strategy Execution, Harvard Business School Online

Set a cadence for connecting across departments

To find time to work with other departments, Katzgrau said to start with simple ways to help you prioritize it in your schedule, like setting up short regular check-ins or using time in existing meetings.

Katzgrau adopted an idea from former New York Times columnist Debbie Galant, who founded Baristanet, which merged with Montclair Local in 2023.

“For her, it was just using a simple system to block out time — like ‘Money Monday.’ That was the day that she synced up with the sales team,” he said. “They got on the same page. They did some work on the revenue side together, and that was it.”

Celebrate wins and share them widely

For organizations using Slack to communicate, Katzgrau suggests using the email forwarding feature to send messages with positive feedback directly to a dedicated Slack channel. Red Bank Green has a #GoodNews channel, which is open to all staff to share wins and updates.

“Make it easy for the different people in your organization to share their wins because any given day, we all get lots of stuff that could potentially bring us down,” he said, referring to current events and external news that could distract from the powerful progress being made on internal projects.

Wins to share can look like:

• Positive feedback on a news story
• Updates on how sales teams are also making an impact on the community and their clientele
• Progress or milestones for a product launch

Katzgrau recommends reading: The Power of Small Wins, Harvard Business Review (Subscription or purchase required)

Embrace a common approach or purpose

When launching a product or pursuing a new revenue stream, it can be challenging to work around institutional barriers.

Historically, news organizations didn’t leave much room for news and the business operations to collaborate. “Firewalls” were built to preserve editorial integrity and became natural silos that news leaders and staff still need to navigate.

Katzgrau said that having an appreciation for one another’s work can help build trust and combat preconceptions.

“One of the probably most corrupting elements at an organization is when you don’t have empathy for the people that work in different parts of the organization,” he said.

For Katzgrau, editorial and sales teams at news organizations often have a similar approach to their work: ask questions to better understand another person, whether it’s a source or a potential client.

In a business environment, a salesperson seeks to understand how they can help a client with their needs and propose potential solutions. Ideally, outcomes lead to a measurable impact for the community at large — parallel to what news and information can do to support healthy societies.

“The editorial team exists to help leave the community better off than they were, or than they would be without them,” he said. “And the sales team exists to do the exact same thing, but for a different segment of the community. It’s an amazing thing when those two are working in lockstep toward serving the community.”