Make newspapers great again

The McClatchy chain has made more cuts in the newsrooms of The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer - two once-great newspapers.

I highly recommend this article about the cutbacks - and the state of journalism in our state - by Tony Mecia, executive editor of The Charlotte Ledger and a former editor and reporter at the Observer.

Mecia says McClatchy, now owned by the hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, bet the business on clickbait, instead of good journalism.

That’s why I’m inundated by restaurant reviews, breathless grocery-store news and celebrity swimsuit photos when I open the N&O’s home page on my iPad.

I used to open the N&O to read in-depth reporting on state and local government, investigations of crooked politicians and insightful analysis and opinion.

It’s a credit to the handful of journalists left that I still find some of that today.

But not enough.

The N&O this month took home a shelf of awards from the N.C. Press Association for excellence in journalism.

The same day, McClatchy cut more newsroom jobs.

Mecia reported, “The cuts eliminate about one-quarter of the (Charlotte) Observer’s newsroom, reducing it to around 25 — down from nearly 300 at its peak about 20 years ago” (emphasis added).

He argues it doesn’t have to be this way - that news outlets in Baltimore, Memphis and Charleston, S.C. are investing in more journalists and better journalism. “The idea (is) to create a product good enough to pay for, to build audiences that advertisers want to reach and to be so vital to the community to attract donations.”

That model might work in North Carolina. Despite the fall of the N&O and Observer - and once-great newspapers all across the state - excellent news organizations have sprung up: The Charlotte Ledger itself, The Assembly and its affiliated outlets like Indy Week, as well as N.C. Newsline, EdNC, N.C. Health News and many more.

We’ve got Thomas Mills’ NC Politics, Alex H. Jones’ New Branchhead, the Hometown Holler, Cabarrus Compass and Asheville Watchdog.

In Southern Pines and across the state, David Woronoff has shown that for-profit journalism can succeed - with the Pilot, BusinessNC and other publications. More than a few of us wish that David, a member of the Daniels family that made the N&O great, would buy the paper and restore it to profitability and excellence.

In his book about the N&O and the Daniels family, Southern News, Southern Politics, long-time N&O reporter Rob Christensen wrote, “It is arguably not a coincidence that North Carolina moved to the political right about the same time The News & Observer - as well as the other major papers - began their economic decline.”

The N&O is special to me. When I was a toddler, my parents moved from Hertford County to Raleigh when my father took a job in the N&O’s composing room. He eventually became foreman.

When I turned 16, he helped me get a job as a copyboy in the newsroom. I worked there 10 years, becoming a reporter and editor.

I graduated from Broughton High School and N.C. State, but I was educated at the N&O.

As Governor Jim Hunt’s press secretary and adviser, I worked with - and wrangled with - reporters and editors at the N&O and the state’s other newspapers. They made some days hard, but they made us better-informed citizens and made North Carolina a better state.

Changing media habits and chainsaw chains like McClatchy have stifled and stilled those voices.

But the spirit of great journalism still stirs across the state. Old journalists find new outlets. Budding journalists seek a fulfilling career path.

Let’s hope and work for a new age of great journalism in North Carolina.

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