By Rebecca Shillenn

“The name of this panel is making money--not friends,” Retha Hill said in a panel at the 2006 ONA conference. Hill, a BET.com vice president, insisted that smaller companies like BET, with 50 people working on its Web site, have to fight to make a profit.

The other panelists seemed to agree, however reluctantly. Success in the field of enterprise journalism is possible, but it’s a struggle. “Keep those ideas coming and think about how you can make money without, you know, selling your soul,” Hill joked.

Neal Scarborough, of AOL Sports said in-depth stories don’t necessarily make more money than a routine story. “I don’t actually think there’s any money to be made in higher-thinking journalism,” he said. Now that he is a general manager instead of an editor, return on investment is more important than journalism per se and he knows he can produce successful stories without fancy interactive hyperlinks. Scarborough said organizations should think carefully about investing in enterprise journalism and make sure they are prepared before they take the leap.

He noted that although the readers are important, news organizations also need to consider advertisers. Scarborough said organizations looking to make a profit from ads should be mindful of placement considerations and should try to build stories that will still be “alive” after sitting on the site for several weeks or months. He also recommended using both front end (flat payment) and back end (payment related to the number of page hits) to secure profits.

Paul Maidment, editor of Forbes.com, said the Web site has made a lot of money from special reports that stay up for several months. The reports are broad topics like “communication” or “energy” and include video and audio interviews, essays, text excerpts and games. He said the packages are paid for by six- to seven-figure sponsorships; allowing Forbes.com to do more extensive journalism than ever before.

Panelists also agreed that a successful newsroom draws IT staff into the editorial process early, instead of hiding them in the basement or running from them. “We’ve tried to bring them up and show them the way,” Fiona Spruill, editor of NYTimes.com, said.

If the technical staff, Web developers and journalists can learn to understand each other and cooperate, the results can be smoother-running newsrooms and higher-quality projects. Scarborough dissented from the others, saying while it is ideal that technical staff and journalists work together, there are times when speed and convenience are more important than working with the technical experts.

The panel entitled “Big Stories can have a big impact (yes, positive) on the bottom line: Make money on enterprise journalism,” took place Saturday at 1:45 p.m.