This Will Not Be News To Robin Saul

I attended the Leadership Greensboro Forum at the News & Record last Friday, followed by a tour of the N&R facilities. There were about 100 people in attendance, which is about 4-5 times larger than the audience a friend and I had when we spoke to the LG folks about homelessness in 2005.

Quote of the day:

“Some people see blogging as news. I don’t.”
– Robin Saul, News & Record publisher

Followed quickly by:

“Robin didn’t mean to suggest that there wasn’t news on our blogs.”
– John Robinson, editor

In a comment to a few of us after the forum, Saul added, “Some do a better job with the facts than others.” Yeah, same with mainstream media. I guess that it must get a little embarassing to be scooped by local bloggers, like Ben Holder, to name a well-known example. Maybe pretending they’re not real helps.

Another interesting quote:

“Any bad decision that’s made here is mine.”
– Robin Saul

Thanks for clearing that up.

Much laughter ensued after this one:

“…the goal for the future is to be ‘the adpaper,’ not the newspaper.”
– N&R ad dept rep

Doug Clark suggested that complaints that the N&R is biased or offensive are reactions to the editorial page. But I’ve also heard or read others’ reactions to the way the N&R’s news headlines are worded, the choice of what news get covered and what doesn’t, and the perspectives from which some news stories are written.

Editor John Robinson said that the N&R’s goal for its blogs is to “engage the community in conversation” and “be a focused point for conversation.” Perhaps they should take lessons on that from Greensboro’s “blogfather,” Ed Cone.

Robin Saul (publisher) and John Robinson (editor) were asked why the N&R has “abdicated business news.” Both said the N&R spreads business news throughout the paper. John’s reference to that day’s front page story of Roy Caroll’s new downtown high-rises made me want to revisit a previous Q&A question: “Who decides what’s news and what’s an ad?”

A WFMY rep referred to the N&R’s “blow by blow” coverage of local government news and asked, “When is enough, enough?” John responded that he asks: “How does it affect taxpayers?” and “Is there crime involved?” And he said that some stories trickle out slowly, so the N&R covers them over time.

I didn’t like the suggestion that news organizations should decide the limits of the public’s right to know. (Thankfully, we have blogs.) And if she thinks the N&R does “blow by blow” coverage of local government, she should try reading the Rhino Times. It’s obvious that the Rhino is a favorite at the N&R, as evidenced by the copies I saw laying around during my tour. (What are the scissors for?)

An audience member asked, “How should you respond if the News & Record presents a negative view or error?” She could have said “when” and not “if.” Judging by the articles I’ve been quoted in or interviewed for, factual errors aren’t a rare occurrence. Journalists get things wrong. (So do bloggers, but we do correct our errors in the actual post. Question for the news folks: When a factual error is made on a front page story, why isn’t the correction front page news, too, instead of a paragraph at the bottom of A2?) John suggested she talk to the reporter and request a correction. He also mentioned follow up articles, but acknowledged that this option was less likely. What he should have told her to do is get a blog and tell her own story – and use it to call out the media when they make mistakes.

There were a lot of questions about press releases. The unasked question seemed to be: “What magic trick can we use to get you to pay attention to our press releases?” But I don’t think it’s the press releases that are the problem. Ad revenues dictate the number of news pages. (Want more news? Buy ads.) There’s a finite amount of space and a shrinking news staff. They can’t cover everything. (Thankfully, we have the interwebs for that.)

Tomorrow morning, there’ll be a News & Record in my driveway. From the time I was a little girl, I’ve read the paper, cover-to-cover (well, except for sports) almost every morning of my life. But not anymore. Because I will have already read online tonight most of the news that will be in tomorrow’s paper. I’ll probably look it over at some point during the day. But I’ll have already gotten my “news” online. Currently, the N&R has a circulation of 89,000 during the week and 115,000 on Sundays. I wonder if we’ll reach the day when all news is online. Who knows? We haven’t given up our subscription yet.

Oh well, on with the show. See my N&R Tour photos here. (Good tour. Great guide!)

>> See Sue’s post on the N&R forum: “Leaderful Lunch” (There was a link in an earlier draft of this post, but I realized that it didn’t survive the editing process. I had to cut for length!)