Goodbye Local Newspaper
Earlier this week
The McClatchy Company
, owner of
The News & Observer
and
The Charlotte Observer
announced a
restructuring plan at both papers
. Along with sweeping job cuts at both papers, many redundant efforts will be merged. For instance, the Sports department will be run out of Charlotte. It is clearly a cost-cutting measure that will vastly improve one side of the balance sheet.
One the other hand McClatchy is forgetting the key purpose of a newspaper, the glue that ties a community. Like them or not, the News and Observer is the meeting place through which an enormous portion of citizens get their information. As evidenced by the Plensa Plaza reaction, it is a place where politicians get the area’s pulse. It’s a two-way interaction that is immeasurable by bean counters, but it doubtlessly is there.
The local flavor of a paper helps define a region. While the Charlotte Observer and the News and Observer both cover UNC basketball games, for example, the interpretation of the game and its effects on fans is different in one city than it is in another. The real estate dedicated to stories shows the area’s interests as well. As mentioned, the Sports page will be run from Charlotte. While the sports pages will not be identical, are we going to get unwanted increases in Panthers, Bobcats, and Nascar coverage? Is it possible for anyone in Charlotte to comprehend the importance of the Carolina Hurricanes?
While the two papers will remain as two separate editions, there will be many more common stories. Stories about state politics, food, and lifestyle issues, for instance, will be carbon copies in both papers. Don’t be surprised if the next stage in this evolution is to merge the two papers as the “Carolina Observer”. Using McClatchy’s logic, there is no reason that 90% of the newspaper can’t be a canned carbon copy in both cities. Each city’s Local section is where local news, local sports, and local business/real estate could be housed. By centralizing content, layout, and production of 90% of the newspaper, McClatchy could save an additional fortune in costs.
While McClatchy is taking care of business on one side of the P&L, are they ignoring the other? Time Warner’s News14 Carolina has already shown us how catatonic and watered down homogenized regional TV news can be. As the paper moves in this direction (the Sunday paper’s content is totally useless to me these days), special interest web sites like this one keep popping up. With more outlets for news, will people feel the urge to pay attention to the ever-homogenizing “local” paper? I, for one, am seriously considering canceling my subscription. While I still need something with which to line the cat box, there is just too much free information and idea exchange out here to keep paying attention to other cities’ interpretation of yesterday’s news. I think I’ll go stew over this at the Raleigh Times Bar.
11 Comments
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June 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Newspaper is as dead as dead. Another 5 to 10 years there will be no newspaper. Great internet blogging sites like this one are part of the reason newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur. RIP - N&O and look out commercial radio, you are next!
June 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
From one pro-Tarheel sports department to another… *sigh*
June 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Yep, more biased coverage. And you’re correct, the Hurricanes will get no coverage whatsoever. Charlotte hates the Canes, based on every attempt I’ve made to find news on them when there. They still are jealous we got a pro team that they didnt.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
They are just doing what they have to do to keep a paper coming at all. The printed newspaper is dying. You can get better local news on the web and even local television.
I do agree it’s sad, but they aren’t going to publish a paper if they aren’t making money.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Has anyone heard who got let go?
June 18th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
No, but I have a list of people I’ll nominate!
June 18th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Dana,
I dropped my subscription 6 years ago and haven’t missed a beat…I do read Tudor on sports on-line.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Before these cuts, I was already tired of reading stories out of Charlotte. If this keeps up, I’m going to cancel my subscription. I am a long time subscriber, but the news I’m getting from the N&O is not worth it.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:59 am
We criticize the N&O often but it’s difficult to imagine local media without it. GoGoRaleigh, New Raleigh & RDUWTF, we all glean much of our source material from the N&O and although we aggregate news items and opine on them, we aren’t doing much journalism, or in depth reporting on the local. That will be a serious void that blogs won’t fill successfully. Journalistic standards will disappear.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:09 am
The final season of “The Wire” (the most powerful series in the history of television IMHO) is true then! The season’s focus was on journalism. Baltimore Sun was hit hard by cutbacks, which resulted in some sketchy jounalistic practice.
My vote :: bring back Samantha Thompson Smith for the Retail section. It’s never been close to the same since she left.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Good question by NCVA…can anyone get a list of writers/editors who were terminated?