News & Observer Reorganizes Local Coverage
It’s already starting to happen. The homogenization about which I theorized last week is in its first steps. The N&O is moving most of its unique, Triangle-related material to a revamped “B” section of the paper named “Triangle & Co.” (is that short for “county” or “company”?). All they have to do is move the high school sports coverage to “B” and they’ll have a paper with all but one section that can be exactly reproduced in Raleigh and Charlotte.
From today’s Local section:
“Starting Monday, your City & State section will become Triangle & Co., a brand-new, larger section that combines the best of our local and business coverage. Monday through Saturday, Triangle & Co. will bring you Triangle and state news stories, roundups of local briefs, national business briefs, stocks, Under The Dome, your favorite columnists (sic - there should be a comma here) and more. As part of the new section, you’ll now get a page of business news on Mondays. Starting July 6, the Sunday City & State section will become Triangle & State and will include a new Sunday Under The Dome column. The popular Life Stories feature will move to the Monday Triangle & Co. front starting July 7…”
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June 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I do not currently buy the Raleigh News and Observer and have NEVER bought the Charlotte Observer (but I have viewed it before, not impressed at all with this paper). I read the N&O online, very good.
If the N&O reduces coverage of the Hurricanes, local Universtity news and sports, local news, local business, metro/city news, I will only read websites associates with the Triangle and Triangle Sports (I will not support this new paper, this is rediculous, especially sports dept. located outside of Raleigh (Charlotte sports is non-existent, pathetic - TRIANGLE: AREA OF CHAMPIONS should be the lead, noone wants to read about the NBA (city should not even have a team) and very few care about the Panthers)
June 25th, 2008 at 10:37 am
One of my favorite comments: “When an N&O and an Observer reporter sit next to each other at a State-UNC basketball game, they won’t each write a game story. Instead, one will write a game story, and one will write a sidebar or column. The two papers can run each piece.”
Of course, this doesn’t explain why Caulton Tudor writes about the EXACT SAME game as a N&O Beat reporter does during College Football and Basketball games.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Greg, well Caulton is paid to write his opinion of the game, not just the objective “what happened and by whom” aspects of the game.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
AP Style says there should not be a comma there.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Mr Talley’s Comma Rule #21: Use a comma before and, but, or, nor, for, or yet when separating items in a series. (That’s for all of you BHS grads:) )
Apparently AP Style needs to review their guidelines. Consider this sentence:
“The street was filled with angry protesters, shouting spectators and police.”
Were the police shouting? Commas to separate items in a series clarify not only the items, but also the modifiers.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Matt, I’ve read both “Beat Reporter” and Tudor’s articles. They cover the exact same information. They also get the opinion’s of B. Reporter.
Even if both are in the paper, why are they both front page of Sports?
June 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Good question. They *shouldn’t* cover the same information, and if they are then that’s a big problem. and the beat reporter(s) should not be giving opinion. As for the second point, it’s not uncommon for the feature columnist to be on the sports front page along with the game story. It’s *usually* the top sport story of the day, but may not always be.