Code Red ozone, and here comes light rail

It’s hot today. Really hot. In fact, it’s been declared a Code Red ozone day, which is the worst level. Children, elderly people, and asthmatics are encouraged to stay inside.

In related news, CATS was testing light rail trains outside our South End office today. Regardless of your politics, it was cool to watch them glide by. —R.T.

Observer Update-Redux

Earlier today, I posted part of an email from county commish Bill James. He told us that The Observer is operating without a reporter covering county gov’t. Since then, I’ve heard from O honcho Rick Thames, who assures me that is not true: “We’ve already named Emily Achenbaum to the county beat, and Steve Harrison to the Transportation beat. Both of these reporters will be superb in these roles.”

But that’s not the interesting part. Here’s the interesting part: I Googled Emily’s name to learn more about her, and I found this fascinating article by Carl Sessions Stepp from the April/May 2007 issue of American Journalism Review. In it, Stepp, who began his journo career at The O 30 years ago, interviews a bunch of twenty-something Observer reporters, and they have some very interesting things to say. Among them:

“I came here to work for a company that doesn’t exist anymore,” transportation reporter Richard Rubin, 28, who joined the paper in 2001, told me in January. “I’ve got 39 years until Social Security checks start coming in. Is Social Security going to be there in 39 years? Will the newspaper industry be there in 39 years? I’ve started to think about it that way, and it is daunting.”
—and—
“Out of all my friends, single or married, about my age, one of them gets the paper, and he only gets it on weekends,” says reporter Deborah Hirsch, 24, who covers adjacent York County, South Carolina. “Everybody thinks it’s cool to know a reporter, but when it comes to do they really care or are they reading on a daily basis, the answer is no.”

While several still swear by ink-on-paper, most of those I interviewed prefer to read the paper online. Several admitted neglecting or not even subscribing to the paper version. “I subscribe,” says clerk-reporter Emily Benton, 24, “but I’ll be honest. They pile up outside my door on weekdays.”
—and—
Emily Achenbaum, based in nearby Union County, thinks newspapers will eventually become the kind of specialty mementoes “you get through a Vermont country store that tracks down old items.” Belated attempts to lure the young through blogs and entertainment features are “doomed,” she says. “They always feel like the not-cool kids trying to force the cool kids to be their friends.”
—and—
Outside the meeting room, the Observer devotes about 14 journalists full time to the Web, with regular contributions from the paper’s news staff of about 250. Managing Editor Cheryl Carpenter, 49, knows her young staff members would like to see even more energy flowing into the Web. But she is quick to show me a chart showing where the paper’s advertising revenue comes from–far more from print than online.

And there’s a bunch more stuff like that. It’s really a fascinating, rare inside look at The Observer newsroom. My two cents on the article: Neither the young bucks nor the old steeds seem to get it. The young ones want hip, edgy content on Page 1A. The established crowd wants to get on the internets and the blogs, but is afraid of jeopardizing the print product. But I don’t think it’s about being hip and edgy, and the print product has already been jeopardized (The O continues to eke out circ gains, but it would be difficult not to gain as fast as this market is growing). Just produce great journalism, of all types, in whatever medium people want it, then get out of the way.

Observer Update

In the May issue, I wrote a story about The Charlotte Observer (which was picked up by Romenesko), one year after its purchase by The McClatchy Co. After talking with several people, including Walker Lundy, who edited three Knight Ridder papers, and a key industry analyst, I concluded that The O used to be a very good paper, is now a good paper, and in the future will struggle to even be that. Since McClatchy bought Knight Ridder, the newspaper industry has gone into tailspin, and there are now signs that The O, one of McClatchy’s most profitable papers, is starting to be affected. Today, County Commissioner Bill James sent me this email:

“Read your article about ‘paper chase’ and the Charlotte Observer. I don’t know if they are in trouble or not but I can attest that they have no regular county reporter anymore. In the ‘old days’ a reporter would call the leading Democrat or Republican to find out what was coming up or was on the agenda. About a month ago Carrie Levine and her husband/reporter Richard Rubin (AKA “Mr. Traffic”) left for greener pastures in Washington, DC. No one has been slated to replace them. This says something. I don’t know if the other political reporter positions are being consolidated or eliminated. Regards, Bill James (R, District 6), Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, Matthews, NC

 

PS – Tell your readers thanks for the award. One man’s ‘blowhard’ is another’s “political breath of fresh air”.”

(The postscript refers to May’s BOB Awards, in which our readers voted him for the Blowhard category)

This is indeed significant. Before Carrie covered local government, her husband Richard did. If true, it’s pretty amazing that a major local daily is operating without a reporter dedicated to covering county government. —Rick Thurmond

Illegal Immigration

Our April issue included a feature on the crisis illegal immigration is causing locally.  Officials say there are about 58,000 illegal immigrants in Charlotte, and we wanted to know what they’re doing about it, but we wanted to look at the problem, too, from the other side.  We wanted to get an idea of what it’s like to be an illegal immigrant in Charlotte, and a young woman we called Ana told us.  She lives her life here in fear, but she also says she can’t move, because she has to support her young son and sick mother—and she says that if you were her, born in a country with little work opportunity and responsible for your family’s survival, you’d be doing the same thing. 

            Well, a measure of hope just arrived for Ana, not to mention the millions of other illegal immigrants in this country, when the Bush administration revealed a surprising agreement proposing amnesty to all of them.  U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has called the sweeping amnesty a “slap in the face” to those legally awaiting citizenship, but what the proposed bill is really centered on is big business.  Employers have become a major force in the country’s debate on the topic, due to widespread labor shortages they say could cripple companies if they were to lose their immigrant workers, and the fact that tougher border laws could dissuade new immigrants from coming to the country in search of jobs.  The proposed bill would address both concerns by saving the jobs of illegal immigrants currently working here, and also by revamping the way the government evaluates perspective immigrants: job skills and education, under this agreement, would be valued above other considerations, such as family ties.

            The Senate began debating the controversial proposal this week, and we’d love to hear what you think about it.  After all, North Carolina has one of the fastest growing illegal immigrant populations in the country, and the majority of them live and work right here in
Charlotte.