Sunday, April 19, 2009

N&O’s Editors’ Blog’s A Very Quiet Place

Publisher Orage Quarles III and top editors at the McClatchy Company’s liberal/leftist Raleigh News & Observer say they’re excited about all the readers who are showing up at the N&O’s 40-plus blogs.

This morning I visited the Editors’ Blog which the N&O describes as the blog where:

Top editors answer questions and talk about The N&O's print and online news reporting. Contributors are John Drescher, executive editor, and senior editors Dan Barkin, Steve Riley and Linda Williams.
Two things got my attention.

First
- How few posts the 4 top N&O editors have put up in recent weeks.

Would you believe only 7 since Mar. 17? How about only 10 since Mar. 3?

Second - Can you guess how many readers commented during the 7 weeks since Mar. 3?

The answer’s one.

The reader posted on Mar. 3 to express satisfaction with changes at the comics page.

Since then there's not been a single reader comment.

Four editors, 10 posts and 1 comment in 7 weeks!

McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt says his company has a bright future on the Internet. He boasts about the online journalism training McClatchy’s given its people and their skills as bloggers. He’s said more than once he’s proud of how McClatchy editors engage readers in what he calls “interactive journalism.”

Others disagree with Pruitt’s talk of
McClatchy's bright future on the Internet. They say the company’s been badly managed for years, including doing a very poor job of adapting to the “new journalism Internet world.”

Many of the company's critics believe McClatchy’s future, at least under the present management, is not on the Internet, but in bankruptcy court.

JinC Regulars know I agree with those who say McClatchy’s headed for bankruptcy.

Today’s visit to the Editors’ Blog did nothing to change my mind.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like many of the "dead tree" media, N&O is in denial big time. They've been living in a dream world for many years in their own version of The Emperor's New Clothes syndrome and now they apparently think they can reverse the tide by chanting "we're great, we're wonderful, the readers love us, ooooom, oooom." Meanwhile, they're tanking like the Titanic.
Like JinC, I feel sorry for the little people who are being hurt--the people who clean the offices, deliver the papers, do the myriad of thankless tasks to keep the newsies going--but the publishers, reporters, editors, columnists, and their ilk? They've earned what's coming because, for the most part, they caused it by their blind obedience to the Leftist creed. They completely ignored the concept of honest, fearless reporting of facts, and descended into the realm of "enlightening" the readers and brainwashing the naive among us.
No, I can't shed a tear when I see editors and publishers taking it in the shorts. Nope, not even a hint of wetness.
Tarheel Hawkeye

Anonymous said...

The liberal media performs a valuable service for the left, and you can bet certain groups of politicians will find a way to use public money to bail them out.

Anonymous said...

Blogging doesn't pay. Selling newspapers pays -- maybe not enough to get out from under Knight-Ridder debt, but The N&O still makes a healthy profit.

I'd rather have the editors putting out the newspaper than diddling around on a blog.

Anonymous said...

It's much easier to control what goes into a newspaper than what goes into a blog. THAT's the reason the newsies don't blog.
T.H.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:57

A company cannot be making money if its once healthy stock is trading for pennies on the share. While there are those newspapers which are turning a healthy profit - the WSJ comes to mind - there are those, like the N&O which are not. Unlike many, I still subscribe to a daily newspaper - however, the one which is delivered to my doorstep (a Knight Ridder publication) is a shadow of its former self. No want ads until Wednesday of each week; inferior color and newsprint; sections combined to save money; and various peoples let go - all to bring a "better quality" product but in fact is not. Why do I "waste" my money on the written word rather than checking the online edition? Primarily to have something to read of local news as I drink my morning tea - I read online editions of the Times and the N&O during the day. However, I may soon make that economic decision that what I get is not worth the money I am spending (rates just went up again and there is talk that the paper may no longer be a daily). That, along with the problems of credibility (NY Times is only one such example) are what are responsible for the demise of the daily newspaper.
cks

Anonymous said...

Has publisher Quarles ever apologized for the N&O's inflammatory news coverage in late March 2006 — coverage that set the table for Nifong to frame the lacrosse players?