Setting the record straight, sort of
News & Observer publisher Orage Quarles offered an “open letter to readers” in the Sunday paper, in which he sought to allay fears that the N&O is a failing enterprise. Setting aside the notion that denials, especially strongly worded ones, sometimes instead carry the unmistakable odor of confirmation, it’s worth pondering what Quarles had to say — and what he left unsaid.
The highlights:
… it’s time to set the record straight: First and foremost, The N&O is a profitable enterprise that is not about to go out of business. In fact, more people depend on us now than ever in our history.
I believe both statements are true. There’s a “but” which should be attached to both, however. The N&O’s profitability is lower, and probably much lower, than it has been in recent years, with recovery to former levels unlikely. And whatever growth in readership the N&O can claim has come almost exclusively in the form of online readership — which produces no direct revenue and a relative pittance in advertising dollars.
We’re not letting up on our public service mission, either. Newspapers play a fundamental role in maintaining and strengthening our democracy, and at The N&O, we take our watchdog role seriously.
Slate’s media writer, Jack Shafer, debunked that “essential to democracy” claim just three days ago. And while I’d agree that the N&O does an exemplary job of keeping an eye on politicians, its pursuit of bread-and-butter local news has dropped off considerably.
We’re maintaining our commitment to our readers, our advertisers and our community …We have had to make some very difficult decisions. The changes to the paper’s sections and layout have been painful, but they pale in comparison to eliminating the jobs of our employees.
Boy, talk about ignoring the elephant in the room: The words “McClatchy” and “debt” appear nowhere in Quarles’ message to readers. He glides easily from the trumpeting of profitability to regret for the cutbacks, without acknowledging the corporate debt that has hamstrung the N&O and every other McClatchy paper.
Meanwhile, you can count on The N&O to be in your driveway tomorrow morning, and every morning for a long time to come. We didn’t get our Old Reliable nickname by accident, you know.
This last paragraph is perhaps the most revealing of all. At a moment when everyone agrees that the newspaper industry’s biggest handicap is its failure to smartly adapt to the digital age, Quarles promises only that the N&O will still “be in your driveway.” In fact, online readers can’t even find Quarles’ remarks on the N&O’s site — which is why I couldn’t link to them here.
He doesn’t seem to realize that, in fact, the driveway is a graveyard. It’s where newspapers eventually will die, not thrive, as technology pushes relentlessly forward.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Dan, I lived in Greenville, SC for 30 something years and worked for Belk, who had a major ownership in the Greenville News. I worked my way up to Sales Promotion Director, so I know all about newspaper advertising. When I read the full page bs Sunday, I told my husband that someone very gifted in copywriting wrote that “letter” to us. This is no joke: I use the N&O to line our kitty litter box when we’re through reading it on Sunday. It now takes both the Sunday AND the Saturday paper to line it. When we moved here in ‘01, I went with the N&O, instead of the Durham paper, even though we live in Durham, because it had better news, a more readable format, etc. It is very sad that the publisher has to write a letter to his subscribers to justify why they’re going down the tubes.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:55 am
What’s that comedian’s line, “are you going to believe your lying eyes, or me?”. Nothing says trouble like a full page add.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Yea, but it’s the papers delivered to our driveways that are keeping them afloat. Sure, the future may be the Web but as a subscriber, I feel like the paper has sometimes forgotten about us low-tech suscribers while it’s chasing that amorphous “virtual reader” with 1001 blogs and other gimmicks.
On the other hand, Just this morning I tried to find on the online edition the tribute written today about Jerry Richardson’s mother (which is not there) to forward to somebody outside this area. The N&O’s website is slow, ponderus and difficult to navigate. No wonder the WRAL website kicks their butts.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Too bad Mr. Quarles didn’t mention that the “Old Reliable” was planning on taking all company cell phones away from their employees as yet another cost cutting measure. Welcome back to the 1980’s……
March 30th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Damn, I’m glad I got laid off last year. It would be painful to try to defend the paper at this point. I paid for 13 more weeks recently, but am probably going to cancel after that. It makes me sad, not just because it’s the paper I worked at for over 10 years, but because I’ve been reading a newspaper regularly since I was 7 years old, when I was introduced to the Washington Post. I feel like a part of me is dying.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Rick makes a good point. The paper product, which pays the bills, is being degraded to the point where I must go to the internet version just to get the missing news. I live inside the beltline and could always count on a complete sports page with West Coast scores. Now I don’t even get Midwest scores in the paper many mornings. So, I go to the computer for them. Like Sheila, the day will come when I say I’m not going to pay anymore because I’m already firing up the computer every morning. I may as well read everything that way.
At that point, I will become part of the problem by not being a paying customer any longer.