You are talking out of both sides of your mouth. If the Disturber is printing what sells, then why are they in financial difficulty? The Disturber should hire someone with marketing experience, they have lots of people here in the Carolinas that are demanding coverage other than the tarholes, but Mike P and his staff are too pro Carolina to realize they could greatly improve their readership with a change. The should simply separate personal allegiances or personal opinions and business. Businesds goals have beome clouded. This is why readership all over America has declined so sharply for newpapers.
Mike P said they will cover us more when we win. For me personally, I am going to dump my subscription after 32 years. When they produce a better product and cover the niners as THE local team, then and only then will I re-subscribe to the Observer.
Maybe bankruptcy or a sell of the Disturber will be a positive thing for the home team. It looks as if total replacement of the Sports Staff, including Persinger will be the only strategy that will change anything.
I have defended Mike P on this board vehemently for years, no longer. I have finally had enough.
Charlotte is the worst sports town in the country. Why would you expect the newspaper to be any good? Theyâre part of the problem. Especially with all the out-of-towners that have moved here and started families. Like they give a flying f about the ACC. Theyâre coming from Big East and Big Ten country. Their kids are going to wind up going to Charlotte more-so than UNC Chapel Hill. The demographics are changing and they (Observer) are going to, if not already, get caught with their pants down.
By the way did you catch the Panthers pre-game on FNZ? Penner was admonishing the wearing of âunaffiliatedâ gear to Panthers games. Iâm pretty neutral on the subject⌠weâre not the NFL and not in a position to complain about who is wearing what (of course I want only green), but Iâm glad to see someone speak out about it in a league where sell outs are the norm.
I guess the solution: Have more sex than UNC Chapel Hill grads (not too difficult), make more babies, and resist the indoctrination.
[QUOTE=NinerLoudNProud;142922]
Charlotte is the worst sports town in the country. Why would you expect the newspaper to be any good? Theyâre part of the problemâŚ
[/QUOTE]
Sad, but true.
[QUOTE=NinerLoudNProud;142922]
Especially with all the out-of-towners that have moved here and started families. Like they give a flying f about the ACC. Theyâre coming from Big East and Big Ten country. .
[/QUOTE]
Excellent point.
The Observer prints what they want people to read, not what the readers want to read.
Iâll use St. Johnâs as an example. Thatâs a school out of New York City whose program has fallen on some pretty rough times. Say you pick up a New York Daily Post or a New York Daily News - you will see that it is the #1 covered menâs basketball team. Win or lose, the team makes headlines. The newspapers⌠donât abandon the team to give publicity to a better team 100 miles away.
Because of the coverage, the school has built a followingâŚ
If that school tasted the success weâve had in the past 10 yearsâŚoh my god, the newspapers and the casual fans would flip. Does our hometown newspaper and casual fans flip over our success? Hell no. Weâre practically apologetic. And for some inexplicable reason, we try to rationalize other teams getting more coverage.
[/QUOTE]
Great post.
This is an excellent example of what happens in other cities.
[QUOTE=77niner;142921] If the Disturber is printing what sells, then why are they in financial difficulty? [/QUOTE]
For the record, weâre not in financial difficulty at The Observer. The paper makes a TON of money every year, enough for you to have a football program several times over if we were to choose to give the profit to you. What weâre experiencing is this: Three big stockholders have said they are not happy with the return on their investment in Knight Ridder, which amounts to about 38 percent of the company, and requested that the company be sold. To fend off a hostile takeover, or to make the company more attractive to potential buyers, the corporation has asked its newspapers to cut expenses. Some have done this by trimming employees, including more than 100 who took separation packages at Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., and more than 70 cut at the San Jose Mercury News. Our philsophy is different, and weâre trimming in other places rather than in people. The perception that weâre going bankrupt could not be further from the truth, as The Observer is a very profitable newspaper, and attractive to many buyers should the company be broken up and sold as parts.
Have they asked me to cut back? Yes. Does that mean I like it? No. Does that have anything to do with the play of the Tar Heels this morning? Not at all. Theyâre popular here, they beat the No. 10 team in the country and one of the most storied programs in the game, theyâre likely to be ranked this week, and they played in the biggest game in college basketball Saturday.
I wonât ask you to like it. But I have no fear of losing my job regardless of who owns us, so unless you have about $500 million to pony up to buy the paper, youâre probably stuck with me.
Unranked defending champion Chapel Hill beating #10 Kentucky is a big story for any paper to cover, especially a paper in NC, but I have several issues with the coverage,
Charlotte has won 4 straight now, beating out mediocre teams that we were losing to earlier in the season, why did this not get covered more extensively?
The Carolina Panthers (located in uptown Charlotte) were facing their RIVALS (similar to what happens between Chapel Hill and Duke)⌠for the first time this year, and Vick was starting, and Vick is 5-0 vs the Panthers, why did this story not get front page?
Where are the A10 scores? Like it or not, Charlotte is an A10 city now. (Being an A10 city is far better than being a CUSA city⌠trust meâŚ) Charlotte can try to claim the ACC all it wants but it is an A10 city in reality. It is time we started getting A10 coverage. I wonât buy the Observer until the newspaper acknowledges that its in the A10.
I may never be an All-American in football or basketball
or become an honor student at Harvard
or finishing 7 under par at Pinehurst
or win the Nobel Peace Prize.
but I thought Iâd always have your respect and your signature.
If anyone needs meâŚIâll be on a bridge. crying.
There was an A-10 recap/roundup in the Neighbors of University City section - yes, I realize this only goes out to the University City section of the city (so if you live in another county, for instance, tough luck). But, itâs a start.
That section of the paper (Thursdays and Sundays) does a nice job covering the 49ers, and I have seen several non-traditional sports get covered. Heck, last week they had 49ers volleyball signings in the paper, that would have never happeend before IMO. They also had some nice volleyball and soccer stories during the season in that section.
I realize that hoops is more important and therefore more worthy of coverage in the main section, but it did exist.
Where are the A10 scores? Like it or not, Charlotte is an A10 city now. (Being an A10 city is far better than being a CUSA city⌠trust meâŚ) Charlotte can try to claim the ACC all it wants but it is an A10 city in reality. It is time we started getting A10 coverage. I wonât buy the Observer until the newspaper acknowledges that its in the A10.[/QUOTE]
They did include A-10 scores directly under ours in printed and online version. See link to Squeaking out win to the left.
[QUOTE=survivor45;142936]No more signature Over40? I am so hurtâŚ
I may never be an All-American in football or basketball
or become an honor student at Harvard
or finishing 7 under par at Pinehurst
or win the Nobel Peace Prize.
but I thought Iâd always have your respect and your signature.
If anyone needs meâŚIâll be on a bridge. crying.
:pout:[/QUOTE]
Survivor, I am sorry.
I was in the process of removing only the last sentence of my signature but accidentally deleted all of it and hit âSaveâ before I realized what happened.
You still have my respect. Please, donât jump off the bridge.
The only thing I find interesting abut this thread is that the sports editor of a
"major" paper, posts here and defends the paper.
Quite interesting.
More than interesting, I think it is great. We hear the other side of the story from someone who actually knows, or at least should know, instead of from someone that has no idea but writes something anyway.
You will soon discover that you may hear one excuse one day from the sports editor and then the opposite the next day from the sports editor. Those of us that have been around for a long time realize this. As you will eventually discover, we donât actually hear the âother side of the storyâ.
[QUOTE=sf49er;142945]The only thing I find interesting abut this thread is that the sports editor of a
"major" paper, posts here and defends the paper.
[QUOTE=Mike_Persinger;142932]For the record, weâre not in financial difficulty at The Observer. The paper makes a TON of money every year, enough for you to have a football program several times over if we were to choose to give the profit to you. What weâre experiencing is this: Three big stockholders have said they are not happy with the return on their investment in Knight Ridder, which amounts to about 38 percent of the company, and requested that the company be sold. To fend off a hostile takeover, or to make the company more attractive to potential buyers, the corporation has asked its newspapers to cut expenses. Some have done this by trimming employees, including more than 100 who took separation packages at Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., and more than 70 cut at the San Jose Mercury News. Our philsophy is different, and weâre trimming in other places rather than in people. The perception that weâre going bankrupt could not be further from the truth, as The Observer is a very profitable newspaper, and attractive to many buyers should the company be broken up and sold as parts.
Have they asked me to cut back? Yes. Does that mean I like it? No. Does that have anything to do with the play of the Tar Heels this morning? Not at all. Theyâre popular here, they beat the No. 10 team in the country and one of the most storied programs in the game, theyâre likely to be ranked this week, and they played in the biggest game in college basketball Saturday.
I wonât ask you to like it. But I have no fear of losing my job regardless of who owns us, so unless you have about $500 million to pony up to buy the paper, youâre probably stuck with me.[/QUOTE]
A âTONâ??? Youâre so full of sh*t that I want to vomit.
[QUOTE=49erpi;142954]A âTONâ??? Youâre so full of sh*t that I want to vomit.
Are you going to sue me for slander now?[/QUOTE]
Nah, heâs just full of arroganceâŚcommon in this industry.
the most interesting thing to me about the news/media industry is its the only industry where the basic fundamentals and laws of markets are ignored and the desire to âdictateâ their agenda rules, profits be damned.
Knight Ridders circulation figures have been among the worst in the industry, partly because of the internet and large part due to their arrogance.
I have no problem with the amount of coverage given to the tarholes, but it certainly does seem disproportionate to the coverage given to other schools⌠especially since Charlotte and Davidson are actually in the same county that the paper is produced. These (and other local schools) should have thorough coverage all the time, no matter what kind of season they are having. That kind of coverage would create more local interest and in turn, sell more papers. Of course Mike P. will say creating interest isnât his job even if it would help him in the long run. :rolleyes:
Bottom line is that Charlotte is a big time sports town but overall the Observerâs sports coverage is weak (at best). Maybe it will improve one day, but I donât see that happening any time soon. Judging by Mikeâs posts on here, and Sorensonâs email response to Wildcat92, it seems like their attitude is âno one gives a sh*t about you unless you are winning.â
[QUOTE=NinerOne;142962]
Knight Ridders circulation figures have been among the worst in the industry, partly because of the internet and large part due to their arrogance.[/QUOTE]
Thatâs an interesting point. As time goes by, I think there will be less and less people subscribing to newspapers in general. I mean, what is the point of paying for a subscription to something you can get free online? Most of the people that I know that subscribe to the paper now are the older generations that arenât as familiar with the internet. If newspaper sales steadily decline over the next 10-15 years I wonder if the newspaper websites will start charging for subscriptions.