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Durham hit today?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Moderator1, May 15, 2009.

  1. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    With a staff that small, you are better off picking the sports that are truly important to your readers and punting everything else.

    If you have a motivated staff of five, it's amazing what can be done. Smaller dailies have been overcoming the odds like that for years.
     
  2. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    You are talking about website coverage of the future.
    For newspapers, this staff of five still has to cover the shit out of local h.school sports, etc., because there are tons of things people still want in the paper.
     
  3. FuturaBold

    FuturaBold Member

    This sounds likes a place where a couple of guys who want to work hard could create their own niche Web site/magazine out of preps coverage in Durham ... The N&O still covers preps pretty well, from what I've seen, though I don't live in Raleigh any more ...
     
  4. PirateSports

    PirateSports Member

    The Herald-Sun used to be one of those places that I thought I would go and stay forever, but not anymore...especially with what happened to Potter. He was one of the good guys. Durham's prep coverage has taken a pretty big hit ever since Guy Loranger left...on his own.
    There's no question that a little magazine covering preps in the Triangle could do well...just wish I had the guts to leave my shop and tack a whack at it.
     
  5. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    The Herald-Sun has to one of the largest circulation papers that does no sports blogging.
     
  6. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    I think, eventually, college football and basketball fans are going to latch on to these Rivals-type sites that cover their teams.

    We're getting to the point where a lot of smaller Metros are incapable of covering the colleges in the manner die-hard fans want.
     
  7. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    A longtime photographer also was laid off, leaving Durham with only two photographers.
     
  8. alias

    alias New Member

    The Herald-Sun has pretty much given up on covering anything in Raleigh since Paxton took over. They laid off the N.C. State writer right after taking over and the NCSU coverage has dipped every year as staff shrinks. These days, NCSU might as well be in another state as far as the H-S is concerned. Their Canes coverage was only intermittent even before Mike Potter was laid off, and I doubt they would be covering the team now if it wasn't doing well.

    And from what I understand, all the writers in the sports department have been filling in on desk shifts for a few months now.

    Well, maybe 4 years ago, when their circulation was in the upper 40k. Their circ is now in the mid to upper 20k range. As the paper's former editor (ousted by Paxton) said a year after the takeover: "They've got it down to Paducah quality and almost Paducah size in record time."
     
  9. So, Paxton's business plan for building a 25K newspaper? Start with a 40K newspaper? :D
     
  10. franticscribe

    franticscribe Well-Known Member

    Close. Make it 50k to start with and you're in business.

    I think the five-year plan was for Paducah to retake its place as Paxton's flagship. They're almost there.
     
  11. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    For those who would say that the slide in circulation is indicative of what's happening around the country, I doubt that it's this bad at most places.

    And as the story in the below link points out, circulation at the Herald-Sun has dropped *45 percent* since Paxton bought the paper. During the same period, circulation at the rival News and Observer -- which certainly has had its problems and layoffs -- has fallen only 7 percent.

    http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A395170
     
  12. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    N&O covers preps? Since when did Tim Stevens get off his rear end and do ANYTHING?

    Years ago, that man tried to pump me for info on something. I gave him enough not to be a complete jerk, but he can do his own freaking work.
     
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