News-Record.com

The Danville Register and Bee, cut the size of their paper a few weeks ago. The Sunday paper, now looks like the Monday paper. My wife accused me of throwing most of it away. I had a church breakfast this morning, so I let her go get it out of the box.
I wish you well, I understand changes have too be made.

Allen,

Thanks for telling it like it is. You didn't try to gloss over the fact that we are loosing something and that loss is caused by economic reality. I think the editorial pages are the soul of newspapers and, hopefully, you can make up the loss of quantity by continuing the good quality.

Even with the wide variety of newspapers to scroll through on line, I still enjoy reading an actual newspaper every morning. I have been a News & Record subscriber since moving to Greensboro in 1986. These changes are puzzling and discouraging. You would think that with the overall decline of print media, the powers that be at the newspaper would be trying to add more quality content, not less.

In addition to eviscerating the television listings, you now have eliminated the book section on Sundays and dramatically reduced the content of the editorial pages.

And this is supposed to make me want to read your paper?

I have also watched the steady decline of local reporters and writers publishing stories in your paper. Gone are the concert reviews by such excellent local freelancers like Parke Puterbaugh and Grant Britt. Mr. Britt was actually assigned to cover the 22nd Annual Carolina Blues Festival this past May, but his review never saw the light of day in the News & Record.

I realize there are bottom-line issues to contend with. It's just a matter of how far this newspaper will allow the bean counters to diminish the quality and content of the N&R.

It is making me re-evaluate why I am still paying for something that is offering me less and less.

This is a body blow and an unnecessary one. It seems that the opion pages were cut to reduce paper costs. If that was the case, there are dozens of other opportunities that could have been made instead of gutting the intellectual part of the paper. For instance, the extremely over-sized picture on the front pages of each section are not necessary. Reduced sized pictures would have freed up one page easily on today's paper. Also the "Top 10" writings are not 1% as interesting as the opinion pages.

Timing:

It could not have been worse. We are now in the most exciting Presidential campaign in our life time. We cannot wait for more educated input on the issues that we will face. If the News & Record had to drop the 2nd opinion page , it should have been done after the election. Having just one column does not do the trick. The N&R has to do what they have to do, but this is mis-guided and will only reduce circulation more.

I ask each of us to go thru the paper and identify items that are less important that the opinion page. I have done it and you will be surprised at other places that could have been cut that would not have inflicted so much pain.

For some time, morale at the N&R has been in the tank. I regret that the fix you have come with will only cheapen the paper. What you have done is to forget the educated, thoughtful people that are interested in not only Greensboro but what happens in the rest of the world.

This is a big mistake, however it is not fatal. It can be corrected. Let thre readers decide what must go?

What an awful piece of news. So you're cutting the editorial pages, but still running New York Times columns from two of the most liberal columnists in America twice a week? That's cutting back? Great move. The Rhino Times really is Greensboro's only newspaper.

I really think this is a mistake. A paper without an op-ed page just doesn't seem like a paper, and it seems like the editorial section is bearing too much of the brunt of the cutbacks. I can live without the tv section, but the editorial section is the first place I turn every morning, and seeing half of it half of the week just doesn't feel right.

I guess you guys have market research driving that the direction of the paper toward utterly predictable stories about "Local Man Leaves Mark on Community" and "Another Solar Panel Installed," but it doesn't describe this reader.

On the plus side, it's still a decent lineup of columnists, although you'd be better off substituting Clarence Page for Leonard Pitts, Mark Steyn or Jonah Goldberg for Thomas Sowell, and Robert Samuelson for anybody.

David Noer:
Thanks for the encouragement. This is not easy and I felt the only way to break the news to readers was to be respectful and honest.
Thanks also for your thoughtful contributions to our op-ed pages.

John Amberg:
I understand your frustration, but I hope we've maintained enough of what you turn to the editorial pages for.
We'll continue to try to provide diversity, depth and quality on these pages, even if the fit will be a bit tighter.

Matt:
Thanks for your comment. Y'know, I've been furiously pecking on my calculator to compute the percentage of liberal columnists at the Rhino and I came up with zero.

Joe Stafford:
I'd be curious as to what others might say about what's most and least important to them.
My experience has been that the intensity level can be very high for even some of the most obscure content (at least relatively speaking).

Doug:
You're right. This was not easy. Thanks for the kind words.
We're still determined to keep the pages strong. We'll definitely have to make some tougher decisions.

Anonymous:
Thanks for the suggestions for columnists. We're always open to shuffling the deck every now and again.

You would be better off if you rotated Maureen Dowd out. She is too New Yorkish for us. She looks down her nose on middle America. Thanks.

The Danville paper raised their prices for week days to 75 cent. I do not think this will be received to good. Insiders tell me their sales are falling like a rock. How about a conservative writer on the local level. My opinion is worth a try. like someone who understands Raleigh.