News-Record.com

On May 22, I wrote that we were dropping the service because its news articles came in too long and too late. As a result, we were unable to use many. For that reason, I decided that we could use the $34,000 that the Times cost better elsewhere.

In the end, we weren't getting the value from the Times service that I thought we should have.

So far I've heard from about 50 people, by phone, by e-mail, by letters and on my Web log. Most specifically bemoaned the loss of columnist Thomas Friedman. Some suggested canceling the columns by Cal Thomas and Charles Davenport, instead. Several wondered why a prosperous newspaper would worry about a relative measly $34,000.
Others said we were caving in to the conservative "spin machine," buying into, I guess, the idea that the Times is a liberal paper. In the same vein, a few applauded the decision, thinking that it would reduce what they perceive as a liberal bias in the paper.

Honestly, the misunderstandings and misplaced assumptions are flying around so fast you had to duck to avoid being swept over by the backwash.

But apparently sparked by my comment about our local news focus, many people concluded that serious world and national news -- as represented by the Times -- was a goner in the paper.

We aren't dropping world coverage. As I write this column -- it's Friday, June 3 -- today's A-section has 18 articles written by our national wire services. Some are from Washington and Atlanta, others are from Vatican City, Frankfurt and Baghdad.

As eagle-eyed readers know, national and world coverage hasn't been an emphasis of ours for months. Most of the time, those types of wire stories run inside the newspaper. The primary difference now is that the source of some of the articles will change; they won’t come from The Times.

Yet, we still receive news and features from a variety of other newspaper syndicates, such as The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. And our main provider, the Associated Press, picks up and sends us rewritten versions of New York Times stories.

Cogent, insightful commentary on national and world affairs also will continue unabated on the Op-Ed page, as editorial page editor Allen Johnson pledged in his column last week.

And while I appreciate those who offered to hold fund-raisers for us to raise the money to continue the Times, we don't need it. It would be easier if the Times would permit us to purchase columnists individually, but it won't. In the end, we will use the money differently and bring more relevant news, information and opinion to you.

Finally, the political partisans on the right didn't force this decision, but I know that whatever I say about that won't convince those who want to believe it.

On a different topic, several editors and reporters held a small community barbecue dinner in Summerfield week before last. We are interested in covering the communities outside of Greensboro and High Point better. Calling our current efforts marginal is giving us a big benefit of the doubt. We started in Summerfield.

Longtime resident Linda Southard graciously agreed to host a barbecue dinner for us and about 25 of her neighbors, and it was a smashing success from our viewpoint.

We came back with dozens of story ideas, and community editor Betsi Robinson and writer Tom Steadman have started on them.

We hope to enlist some residents to write about happenings in Summerfield and other Guilford County towns for the newspaper and our Web site. If you are interested, please let me know.

Speaking of the Web site, we have unveiled our new design for www.news-record.com. You can reach it by clicking on the "sneak peek" link at the home page. Because it is a beta site, we haven't gone into a full-scale launch. We invite you to take a look, explore it and send us comments for improvements.

Finally, be sure to look for our special U.S. Open preview section next Sunday. We'll have everything you need to know to enjoy the Open in Pinehurst, including a hole-by-hole players' guide.