Television and print have their usual restrictions when it comes to news reporting, but web video doesn’t. That may sound like a less restrictive practice, but, in fact, certain sites can run into problems with this, based on who ends up calling the shots for what goes up, according to Digiday.

The New York Times has seen its struggles in the video department, recently shaking up staffing with the departure of managing editor Bruce Headlam and general manager of video Rebecca Howard, to pursue other roles. This leads to the question – who should be taking charge in video production, editorial or business

Digiday went on to talk to three different outlets, including The New York Times, about examples on how to get around this.

First off, there’s The New York Times. While video business was on the rise with 15 channels in a production slate and a number of new original series, there was consistent tension. It seems that an executive should have been placed in charge to oversee all aspect of the video business. Said the executive (who spoke on anonymity), “Video has a marriage to the (editorial) experience but has a standalone opportunity beyond that. There very well may be editorial folks out there who can do it, but threading that needle between issues like production costs, distribution and even managing the balance between text and video, and still being able to run a fully scaled operation is, I think, beyond what I’ve typically seen coming out of editorial.”

Next up is Meredith’s National Media Group, which has seen its fair share of business as well. Its video division is headed up by vice president of video production Laura Rowley, who said, “You have to have somebody who understands editorial, advertising and the dynamics between the two – of what the revenue picture looks like and how that translates into the kind of production costs you can put into place.”

Meanwhile, video ad sales run separately to Meredith senior vice president Marc Rothschild, though Rowley also oversees branded and native video content. “Every media organization has that tension,” Rowley said. “One of our strengths is that our culture is very collaborative. Editorial understands where the line is and pushes back when they need to.” At the end of the day, editorial dictates the video that is produced because each magazine brand’s editors know their audience best.

“I’ve also never had a conversation where the advertising side said, ‘Hey, can we run a feature on this advertiser ‘” For that, Rowley said, there’s a separate branded-content unit on hand to assist.

Overall, this business structure works well, as Meredith draws 60 million views per month from the United States alone.

Finally, there’s the Huffington Post, which is led by general manager Nathan Brown with some assistance from editorial director Danny Shea. Both agree that there’s a need to include both editorial and business on the video side.

“The way to make it work is to have a true partnership and not just say it’s a partnership,” said Brown. “What skills and knowledge I don’t have, Danny does, and vice versa.”

“It’s a hybrid role,” added Shea. “If we were just running it from the editorial department, it wouldn’t succeed. If Nathan were running it without the editorial department, it wouldn’t succeed.”

Brown ultimately runs the division, but Shea keeps in contact to make sure that business and editorial continue to be balanced within it. “Business’ job is to look at the big picture – how do we explore new formats, distribution of content, etc. – not the granular, day-to-day operations of video,” added Brown. “You just have to be open to a really fluid model. You can’t be inflexible. I’m saying buzzwords, I realize that, but being protective of the past will always get in the way of the future.”

Added Rowley, “It’s like Ghostbusters – you don’t want to cross the streams.”

Certainly food for thought for those looking to grow their video and editorial business…