Here’s a remark from a reader who must have an RSS feed or something on The Naked City, because the comment came only minutes after I posted it late last night.
The real news is that the Charlotte Observer and Charlotte.com are continuing their slide into total irrelevancy. Hope you didn’t come back here expecting your job to be around for a long time. 6/24/2008 12:38:00 AM
Well, now, thanks for reading, but I’m pretty well up to speed on conditions at the Observer. (If it’s so irrelevant why read this?) I’m fully aware the Observer isn’t perfect. And the layoffs have hurt everyone, even those of us who keep our jobs, because of the emotional trauma and damage to the newsroom’s staffing levels.
But is there any other source of news about Charlotte and environs that is substantially better, in terms of breadth, depth and scope?
The financial problems the Observer and other newspapers face are caused essentially by a huge dropoff in classified advertising. Welcome to Craigslist world. If you count daily circulation and online, readership is up for the Observer and many other papers.
I just read an academic paper on the topic of newspapers, that provides some facts that run counter to the prevailing word-of-mouth stuff I’ve been reading. If I can dig up the link, I’ll post it here. Later. Got to unpack and run errands.