Where are our local papers going?

Thanks for the comments about us and the expansion. Trying to right-size the paper in distribution and coverage has been the biggest challenge. The stories are out there and the interest in the paper is growing. We've also really picked up a lot of local advertising support in the past year and without that expanding anything would be impossible. Large institutional advertisers (university-related, grocery stores, car dealers, local gov'ts) that our competitors rely on still haven't come around, but we knew that would take time as we established ourselves. Once they do, we can add the features we need to make the Citizen a much more well-rounded paper.What we're focusing on is covering local government and the impact of policy on people and the local economy. This may seem really dull to some, but wait till something happens in/to your neighborhood. Holding policy makers accountable is the bedrock of the press and of our paper. I really appreciate the comments, ideas and criticisms we've gotten and, of course, all the moral support. Other papers and media get that too, but the state of the industry is such that many are not in control of their destiny.Thank you for supporting The Citizen and continuing to help us grow. Kirk Ross, editor   

This month The News of Orange has expanded their online presence with a blog at http://hillsboroughnewsroom.blogspot.com/.

The Carrboro Citizen has been a great addition to the community. They've put out some dynamite stuff. Notable in my memory was the excellent overview of our solid waste predicament.The Chapel Hill News has done some really good stuff. Mark Schultz is a local all-star. His reporting on the airport issue was stellar and contributed greatly to the community consensus that the airport search should be terminated.Meanwhile, the N&O doesn't understand that people want real news that relates to their lives & tells the truth and columnists who are in touch with the real world & have a track record of accuracy. Instead we get failed, tired pundits like Krauthammer & Wlliam Kristol. If those guys had been wrong so many times in any other profession, they'd have been canned long ago. Plus the N&O tiptoes around big corporations like Progress & Duke Energy, so their reporting on energy issues is flawed. It just makes for a medoicre product. The Herald-Sun has been a Grade-A rag forever it seems. Who cares. 

Thanks for the kind words about our hard work, Ruby. But I would like
to add that in addition to the innovations with online communication,
we have done some decent reporting and anyone who hasn't noticed hasn't
been reading.

We broke the news that University officials blamed the
economy when Alexandria's concerns over language were actually holding
up the process, Tori wrote that the toxicology report for Atlas Fraley
is finished and that experts say his autopsy is taking unusually
long, Danielle reported that the economy is hindering downtown
businesses ability to attract tenants and delaying the construction of
Walgreens, we reported that concerns about the crossing where a
Carrboro housekeeper was hit last month have been ignored for years,
and Mark explained why the gates of Hell shut. That is all since we got
back from break and apart from the meetings and events that have
sent our reporters all around town.

And that is before I even mention the great stuff
our other desks are doing in covering University and community life and policies.
Sure we might try new stuff but the people here are old fashioned
reporters who like to tell a story. So where is The Daily Tar Heel
going? While the city desk doesn't have the benefit of reporters who
have lived here for years, we are placing an emphasis on getting to
know the community and its concerns. Please contact me about what we
can do better or if you'd just like to talk over coffee (rose.l.max@gmail.com).
We want to find a place in the community alongside the great
publications that you mentioned above- all of which I read avidly. And
I'm proud of the staff here and the work that we've already done.

Max RoseCity Editor, The Daily Tar Heel

I have noticed that my recycling bin is getting lighter, primarily due to shrinkage of the N&O.  Last August when I renewed my subscription at the pit, I said to the salesman whom I've seen for years, that I am close to dropping the subscription because of the quality decrease  coupled with a price increase.  He replied "everyone is saying that".  But I'm just not ready to eat breakfast on my deck with a laptop, to which he replied similarly.I used to think that the shame was to pay for, kill trees for, and lug out to the curb, all the unread Raleigh-Cary advertising when I'm not in the market for a new house or car in Wake.  The short-term, selfish good news is that this is problem has been reduced.  The longer view, of course, is that the paper might not survive and I may be reading the news only under the banner of Bill Gates.

I'm with Joe.  I love my morning paper!  The thought of having to go on line for news and commentary gives me the shivers.  Imagine the increase in eye fatigue!  The sudden and premanent rush of business for ophthalmoligists! 

 This is my first week/weekend in a long time with no physical paper in the driveway (except for the CHNEWS on Wed/Sunday).    It is definitely something to get used to.    I'm on the computer so much anyway, might as well rely on the news there.  I don't miss it, yet. Laurin laurineasthom.wordpress.com  

Here are two reasons why I prefer the physical paper.  First, it is easy to  separate (and ignore) the ads in the paper, while the ads on the websites are obnoxious, they blink, they move, and they interfere with my reading of the news.  I understand that someone has to pay for the website (and for the paper as well), but I tend to rebel against the advertiser who uses an obnoxious ad --  the poster child is car dealerships.  Why any car dealership thinks that giving a guy a microphone and having him yell at me will make me want to buy a care from him is beyond me.  In a newspaper, the news looks like news and the ads look like ads and they are easy to separate.The second, and this has been a long study in the computer graphics field, is that there is far more information quickly available on a newspaper page than on a computer screen.  The physical paper compares well to a desktop while the  laptop screen compares well to the table of a coach airplane seat.An final comment, though it may be obsolete, or it may explain the mediocre quality of the Herald-Sun website:  A few years ago at a Durham Bulls game, I bumped into Bill Hawkins who was then editor of the paper and I thanked him for starting the website.  He replied that the website is a now necessary exercise in losing money. 

There are some obvious ergonomic differences - I doubt if anyone ever got repetitive stress injuries or carpal tunnel from reading paper-ink newspapers. But for me, even more important (since I DO get a lot of news on line) at least with a paper-ink paper, you know when you're done.  That may sound blithe, but think about it....  

Course it helps to cover local government when they let you know when the meetings are.To wit: Meeting? What meeting?

The
Town of Carrboro had a problem sending official notification of the
annual Board of Aldermen retreat on Monday. The board, mayor and senior
staff met for several hours. Mayor Mark Chilton apologized for the
error Tuesday and said Town Manager Steve Stewart was notifying members
of the media and offering an apology for the breakdown in communication.
According to Chilton, the press was not notified save a posting in the lobby at Town Hall.
Members of the media and interested members of the public are
commonly notified of upcoming meetings via email and through the town’s
website.
No members of the media were present at the retreat and materials
presented at the meeting have not been posted on the town’s website or
made available.

An agenda and letter we got today (Tuesday) on it are on our site. According to the agenda, the main focus of the retreat was the sagging economy and the strain on local governments.

The town manager shouldn't have to apologize for meeting with the mayor and BOA without members of the press in attendance.  They need this freedom when there's hard stuff to discuss out of the public eye. 

http://www.ncdoj.com/DocumentStreamerClient?directory=Publications&file=OpenMeetings.pdf

The law is pretty clear on this. The law reads:

§ 143‑318.12.  Public
notice of official meetings.

(a)       If a public body has established, by ordinance,
resolution, or otherwise, a schedule of regular meetings, it shall cause a
current copy of that schedule, showing the time and place of regular meetings,
to be kept on file as follows:

(1)       For public bodies that are part of State government,
with the Secretary of State;

(2)       For the governing board and each other public body
that is part of a county government, with the clerk to the board of county
commissioners;

(3)       For the governing board and each other public body
that is part of a city government, with the city clerk;

(4)       For each other public body, with its clerk or
secretary, or, if the public body does not have a clerk or secretary, with the
clerk to the board of county commissioners in the county in which the public
body normally holds its meetings.

If a public body changes its schedule of regular meetings, it
shall cause the revised schedule to be filed as provided in subdivisions (1)
through (4) of this subsection at least seven calendar days before the day of
the first meeting held pursuant to the revised schedule.

(b)       If a public body holds an official meeting at any
time or place other than a time or place shown on the schedule filed pursuant
to subsection (a) of this section, it shall give public notice of the time and
place of that meeting as provided in this subsection.

(1)       If a public body recesses a regular, special, or
emergency meeting held pursuant to public notice given in compliance with this
subsection, and the time and place at which the meeting is to be continued is
announced in open session, no further notice shall be required.

(2)       For any other meeting, except an emergency meeting,
the public body shall cause written notice of the meeting stating its purpose
(i) to be posted on the principal bulletin board of the public body or, if the
public body has no such bulletin board, at the door of its usual meeting room,
and (ii) to be mailed or delivered to each newspaper, wire service, radio
station, and television station, which has filed a written request for notice
with the clerk or secretary of the public body or with some other person
designated by the public body. The public body shall also cause notice to be
mailed or delivered to any person, in addition to the representatives of the
media listed above, who has filed a written request with the clerk, secretary,
or other person designated by the public body. This notice shall be posted and
mailed or delivered at least 48 hours before the time of the meeting. The
public body may require each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and
television station submitting a written request for notice to renew the request
annually. The public body shall charge a fee to persons other than the media,
who request notice, of ten dollars ($10.00) per calendar year, and may require
them to renew their requests quarterly.

(3)       For an emergency meeting, the public body shall
cause notice of the meeting to be given to each local newspaper, local wire
service, local radio station, and local television station that has filed a
written request, which includes the newspaper's, wire service's, or station's
telephone number, for emergency notice with the clerk or secretary of the
public body or with some other person designated by the public body. This
notice shall be given either by telephone or by the same method used to notify
the members of the public body and shall be given immediately after notice has
been given to those members. This notice shall be given at the expense of the
party notified. An "emergency meeting" is one called because of
generally unexpected circumstances that require immediate consideration by the
public body. Only business connected with the emergency may be considered at a
meeting to which notice is given pursuant to this paragraph.

This was a regularly scheduled meeting, which puts it under section A of the above statute, which I think we complied with.  We normally provide more notice than is required by law and we will continue giving lots of public notice.  This was an innocent mistake, but I don't think we broke the law, unless I am reading that statute incorrectly.

Probably not a law breaking thing (we'll see what the NCPA says). I'm not sure what kind of penalty there would be anyway. After talking to the Town Manager it indeed seems like an innocent mistake. I was delighted to hear that steps are being taken to make sure this doesn't happen again.All that said, it's a pretty serious error. Unless there's a recording of the meeting or detailed notes, folks will not have independent knowledge of the views expressed by those in attendence, what happened or what was said. Given that the conversation focused on the economy and its impact, a good opportunity to better understand these things and our elected officials' take on them was lost.     

TIME Magazine's cover story this week, "How to Save Your Newspaper," by Walter Isaacson (a former managing editor of TIME and current president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author, most recently, of Einstein: His Life and Universe) reviews the current situation faced by the print media.As he notes,

Newspapers and magazines traditionally have had three revenue sources: newsstand sales, subscriptions and advertising. The new business model relies only on the last of these. That makes for a wobbly stool even when the one leg is strong.

Issacson admits that "Even an old print junkie like me has quit subscribing to the New York Times, because if it doesn't see fit to charge for its content, I'd feel like a fool" and proposes a more expansive "charging for content" approach: 

The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.

Read it athttp://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1877191,00.html 

My wife and I have been discussing this topic since John Drescher's column on Jan 24 (http://www.newsobserver.com/2711/story/1380070.html) failed to mention anything positive about the CH News.  She believed then that the N&O is getting rid of the CH News (either let it die from the starvation already done to it or preferrably sell it). So it was VERY interesting to us that the other day I received a survey phone call.  Some of the questions --"Do you receive the Chapel Hill News" "How many people read it?""How long do you keep it around?""Do you shop at advertisers in the paper?""Do you read the classifieds?"  Perhaps just a standard "how are we doing" survey to be able to pitch to businesses.  Perhaps not.  The guy wouldn't say who was paying for it.  I answered honestly.  Good news for the N&O on all but the last one (which, as a former Advocate carrier in my youth, is to my disgrace).  Did make me wonder whether my wife (UNC J-school grad, former DTH editor, and former N&O employee) is being paranoid or not....

Another day, another attempt to use the worst-conceived newspaper website I've ever used.  It takes 4 clicks to do what should take one click on the Herald-Sun website.  Then I get to read the latest piece by Dan Way, a boilerplate movement conservative jeremiad against the stimulus bill which spends more time attacking the New Deal and taking cheap points about Joe Biden's comments from 5-6 months ago where he misplaced the invention of the television by a decade or so.  He then goes on to quote Roy Cordato, a JLF hack, who argues that the 1980 recession was worse than today, and blames it on Jimmy Carter.  The article does not even critique the stimulus on any substantive logic points, just that it's a trillion dollars.   But put that aside for a moment.Is this a local paper, or a national paper? Why would you burn your Sunday lefthand op-ed to gripe about the stimulus in the Chapel Hill Herald?  Sunday is still the best day for circulation, I assume?  There are so many local issues worth exploring.  Seriously, are they trying to drive readership into the ground so that they can blame being beaten by the competition of CHNews and the Citizen, and fold up the CH Herald to save money?   If this isn't the strategy-- having a miserable website, an editor fiercely out of step with the community, and writing on issues that are national, not local, why else would they do things like this?

Although it's just an aside and not central (maybe) to the issue of Dan Way's political leaning, I was astounded to read his opinion piece on smoking "Smoking, and being around it, is a choice."   http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/way/114-108551...  

The News & Observer's public editor and former CHN editor is ending his 32-year career at the newspaper to take charge of communications at the state Department of Transportation.That ought to be a less stressful position!

Ted, congratulations on your new post.  DOT needs all the help it can get.  Here's your first challenge:Please get us some basic maintenance on the DOT-owned roads in CH and  on the UNC campus.  Their condition is pathetic. Wasn't NC once called the "Good Roads" state?

This is rather sad.  Although I'm sure Ted is looking out for his best interests (including a reduction in stress), he's always seemed to relish his position as public editor.  And he really was a perfect fit at CHN, waving at passers-by from his streetfront picture window. 

For many people, moving on greatly reduces stress.  My lament is that Ted will be stuck with one message probably for the rest of his career.  Damage control has been his strong suit at the N&O, and he's well suited for the DOT challenge.  Seems like it would pay more. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/McClatchy-Announces-prnews-14578309.html

Today, the company said it plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 15% or 1,600 full-time equivalent employees as the company accelerates efforts to manage through an increasingly poor national economic environment.

What part of this will come from the N&O and The Chapel Hill News?

Ironically enough, this came from the Boston Globe's online paper: 

Editor Dan Way announced on the front page of the CHH that begining this week, they will become a Wednesday, Friday and Sunday paper.

The most obvious of the changes is a switch from daily publication to three times a week -- Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. That's a necessary concession to the economic realities and staff reductions facing the entire newspaper industry today as well as ironing out longstanding dilemmas about how to handle crossover news in the Durham and Orange counties market. You can find more about the decision in Editor Bob Ashley's column today on page D8 in The Herald-Sun. http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/way/http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/ashley/

Times are tough in the newspaper business.