Online journalists have a lot of bosses. Don’t we? Beyond the individual who signs your paycheck are a host of people with a lot of expectations.

First, the readers, who have too many expectations to list. Second, the newsroom. Reporters and editors expect us to expand their reporting online. They expect us to know how. And they expect us to be fast. Or, more to the point, to be the fastest. Satisfying the newsroom is vital to a successful Web site because a good relationship means more news, idea generation, participation and ultimately a better product.

Luckily, satisfying the newsroom is also the path to satisfying the readers. And satisfying the readers helps impress another important boss – the advertisers.

Yes, you’re expected to create a site that advertisers think is worthy of spending money on. And when you’ve don’t that, usually, you’ve satisfied another boss: The corporate executives who expect you to rescue the company.

An old expression holds true here. “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.”

So which do you choose?

What I've said above seems to imply that if you could please the newsroom 100 percent of the time, then everyone else in the chain would be happy. I think that's true. But I also think the expression is wrong. You can't please some of the people all of the time when staffing is short.