News-Record.com

Does the N&R share stats? Even AW stats? Would love to see them. (Advertisers dig stats.)

We share stats with advertisers placing buys to help them target their ads most effectively. We also have a lot of stats we only use internally to monitor the most popular stories, sections, pages. That helps guide us toward making better decisions on content and functionality.

John,
Why have you chosen not to cover the Willow Oaks payout by City Manager Mitch Johnson?

Good old Tony, staying right on point. It's getting well covered in the blogosphere and the Rhino. Why is everyone so anxious that we jump in, too?

Good old John, avoiding the question.
Because it's news and you are a newspaper.
The question is not going away.
There's a few people who want to know.

Ah, just playing with you, tony, seeing whether you'd explain why you want the paper writing about it when others are. We've done some reporting on it and will continue to. We don't see the huge story there that a few of you do, but perhaps it will develop into one. As with everything else, we'll publish what we find.

But as you probably know, we don't write about everything the Rhino does and vice versa.

"We don't see the huge story there that a few of you do"

Yep Tony, some of the HUGE stories for today were "Center City Live Activities Cancelled", "Court Focuses on Treatment", "Fighting Fires A Family Affair", and "Park Springs Into Activity".

Why would anyone want to know about possible malfeasance of their (taxpayer) money?

The N&R is quickly becoming a second class, "has been" newspaper. Fluff pieces are all I see.

Maybe we can talk the Rhino into a daily where we can get some real news. Doesn't look like the N&R is going to provide any--unless they can find something with racial overtones attached to it.

Articles galore on the Wray affair (when it was racial, not so much now that it's not), the Guilford College fight, and Dianne Bellamy-Small BS.

One small paragraph on the Willow Oaks fraud investigation.

Truly amazing reporting.

I would find it interesting to know why the editor of the News-Record doesn't consider even the possibility of malfeasance in city mangement as a story. There is certainly enough smoke there to suggest that there is a smoldering fire underneath. Why does the city have to rely on a weekly alternative newspaper and a blogger that actually investigates to find and expose the story? I expect my daily newspaper to be all over local stories that affect us, the residents. What is the role of this newspaper if you aren't going to investigate and report?

"Our data should convince every editor and publisher still in doubt that we ignore the opportunities to expand journalism and build community at our own peril."

Online blogging shouldn't be the ultimate mission for a local daily newspaper. Investigation and reporting of local issues certainly is. If you want to expand journalism, this would be the place to start, or you may find that this newpaper has become irrelevant. This is where the alternative media is beating you in Greensboro.

John,

Ben says (on Hogg's Blog) that this is the extent of the N&R's coverage of the Willow Oaks matter:

"In other business, the council learned that the city will investigate the possibility that a contractor forged an invoice in order to receive taxpayer money. The allegations of fraud were first made last week in the weekly Rhino Times about a contractor who worked on a project near the Willow Oaks neighborhood."

Is Ben correct that that is the totality of your coverage thus far?

Also, if I'm reading you correctly, is it your position that if stories are adequately covered in blogs or alternative weeklies, the N&R doesn't need to cover them?

Finally, do you read Ed Con's blog? How come we very rarley see you commenting on non-N&R local blogs?

We also covered the meeting between the city and the bloggers, if that counts.

No, that's not our position. But it's not our position to write about everything the blogs and alt weeklies write about, anymore than that they write about everything we write about.

I read many of the blogs, including Ed's. There are a couple reasons that I don't comment much on other people's blogs. I only comment when I can move the ball forward, one way or the other. I generally don't bother to comment on the blogs I sense aren't interested in a discussion or hearing a dissenting view. But by far the biggest reason is that I scarcely have enough time to keep up with my own blog, much less the comment strands on others.

I got interrupted in my answer. I meant to add:

We get story suggestions all the time. I alone got four over the weekend, each of which would take a good deal of time to see to publication. As a result, we have to make choices on where we devote our time, as, I assume, does the Rhino and bloggers.

I find it absolutely amazing that the N & R wouldn't be all over this story like snot on a 3 year old.

Reading the ongoing account in the Rhino makes me think that Johnson's days are numbered as the City Manager of Greensboro.

As someone put it in an earlier post - if there were even a hint of mishandling tax payer dollars, the primary paper in town you should be in the faces of our leaders - and not back down until they get answers.

From March 2007 here is an exact quote from you John:
"Newspapers have always kept a close watch on how elected and appointed officials behave. Citizens deserve to know how their representatives go about their jobs."
What changed since March?