If you want to see the difference between the relative resources of the post-cutback Herald-Sun vs. the similarly-pinched N&O, take a look at today's papers.
The H-S finally acknowledged the Ronnie Sturdivant shooting this morning (having had no coverage of the event on Sunday) with a fairly perfunctory and non-bylined story on the case that was essentially the D.P.D. news release mixed with a snippet of Sturdivant history and a one-graf statement from the family.
Meanwhile, the N&O somehow had time and staffing to run a fairly good retrospective of his life and downtown business dealings, complete with a good photo of the maverick entrepreneur. (It's definitely worth a read.)
A H-S reader notes the discrepancy and suggests in the online comments to the H-S article that Sturdivant "deserved a better story than this one." We couldn't agree more.
So what do you do when you have a small newsroom on tight staffing on a holiday weekend? Well -- other than, apparently, pray that no breaking news happens -- you run things like this little ditty, which I swear is about two snarks away from a piece in The Onion:
"Convention excites Durham GOP official"
Laney Funderburk, vice chairman of the Durham County Republican Party and a member of the state steering committee for John McCain, said on Sunday from his home that he's looking forward to the Republican National Convention.
"I'm very excited about John McCain and his new running mate, and our intention is that he will carry our great state of North Carolina."
Funderburk is not a delegate and isn't attending the convention, but plans to watch much of it on television.
"There's little mystery about who the candidate will be," he said. "It's really a TV event. It's designed more to take the message to the people who are watching and listening than it is to actually selecte a candidate. It's part of the campaign."
Funderburk said he believes McCain "has all the qualities of leadership to be a great president."
That's not an excerpt; that's the whole darn article, printed here for purposes of lit crit. And what did we learn? Laney's sitting back in his Barcalounger flipping through the convention on C-SPAN. Oh, and he's a McCain backer; shocking, that.
So you call up Laney on a Sunday, find out he's not going to the convention, and he backs McCain; and you run that as a story? Sure, having a sidebar to a convention story is a good way to get a local angle, but if you're going that route, you've got to be able to find someone actually going to the convention, right?
The H-S' new billboard on 15-501 informs us that without the paper, you wouldn't "know bull." Somehow, I sense that they should throw a blanket over that billboard on a holiday weekend.
(Obligatory disclaimer: Though not an employee of either the H-S or N&O, I do write occasional columns for the N&O's The Durham News as a paid freelance writer.)
At least the Herald-Sun provided us with coverage of the Duke and UNC football games ,on Saturday night, in their Sunday paper. This is something that The N&O couldn't accomplish.
Posted by: CJ | September 01, 2008 at 09:13 AM
At least the Herald-Sun provided us with coverage of the Duke and UNC football games ,on Saturday night, in their Sunday paper. This is something that The N&O couldn't accomplish.
Posted by: CJ | September 01, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Apparently the H-S is helping us to recognize bull by providing it for us.
Posted by: Steve | September 01, 2008 at 09:27 AM
I wonder what kind of TV Larry is going to use to watch the convention? HD? Plasma? LCD? Do you think he's watching Gustav coverage now, instead? Do you think his den chair is leather, or chenille, or would he go so far has a leopard print? So many unanswered questions. So many design decisions. At least we are CERTAIN he's not gay, or they would have mentioned the chenille.
Posted by: Scott | September 01, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Scott: yes, but his name is Funderburk....
Posted by: durhamfood | September 01, 2008 at 11:33 AM
I'm not sure I would laud the N&O for its reporting today. The story itself was fine, but a day late.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the violent death of a prominent businessman at 4:30 in the afternoon would make the next day's paper. Not so much anymore. Both papers make that plainly clear.
I'm curious how much worse the reporting on Durham from Chapel Hill will get once the N&O has its next round of layoffs.
Posted by: Jonathan Jones | September 01, 2008 at 01:11 PM
Pardon my choking at the labels "prominent" or "businessman" in a description of Ronnie Sturdivant.
PS - Great points, Kevin, on the failures of local media.
Posted by: Tar Heelz | September 02, 2008 at 09:26 AM
I suggest you consult a dictionary Tar Heelz. It might help with that choking problem.
P.S. - Kevin only pointed out the failure of one local medium.
Posted by: Jonathan Jones | September 02, 2008 at 11:46 AM
@JJ: True that neither paper got this in their Sunday editions. That said, WRAL only ran the story (which I think it broke) at close to midnight on Sat., I _think_. The story appeared to have been filed after the 11pm news. I'm wondering when the DPD press release came out.
One could argue that local media should be glued to the police scanners, and there's something to that -- and that would be just as hard for the N&O to pick up in Chapel Hill as it would be for a quiet H-S newsroom to figure out.
On the flip side, the N&O has now had two pretty good metro-page articles on Sturdivant and Kaalund, along with a Barry Saunders column on the subject. The H-S still has had only the brief Labor Day piece.
Posted by: Bull City Rising | September 03, 2008 at 09:57 AM
You pretty much hit my point, Kevin.
If news organizations wait for police departments to issue press releases, well, there's a whole lot of crime that goes unreported. Waiting for the press release qualifies as an absolute failure.
The basics of crime reporting are keeping an ear to the scanner, checking daily police logs (in person) and developing sources within law enforcement. It takes all three, everyday, to stay on top of crime stories.
The delay tells me that the N&O didn't have anyone on duty in Durham Saturday, or if it did, that person was so busy they couldn't adequately cover all the bases. I can accept that from the out-of-town paper, even if I don't like it. It's a travesty that the hometown paper is so far behind.
The N&O has done a fine job of catching up on the story. Absolutely fine.
And after today's announcement, I again worry how bad the reporting on Durham from Chapel Hill (or perhaps soon, Raleigh) will get.
Posted by: Jonathan Jones | September 03, 2008 at 05:06 PM