Today's Observer

I’d rather see the A-10 stuff on game days and the game information easy to find. Charlotte is a 20,000 student public university in Charlotte. Davidson is small, private and in Davidson. There’s a major difference.

I am looking forward to the insights, interviews and features on people and prospective players which you will enjoy (I hope) that you mentioned. That stuff is always good. I think our main complaint is game-day.

GREAT COVERAGE BIG O!

HAVE TO GO TO CINCI PAPER TO GET “DECENT” COVERAGE.

Thanks for the links, Mein. Glad Cinci has a decent paper.

Cincinnati Enquirer, on top of the excellent game day story:

XAVIER AT CHARLOTTE
Tipoff: 7 p.m. today, Halton Arena (9,105)

Records: Xavier 10-2, 2-0 A-10; Charlotte 10-5, 3-0

Radio: WKRC-AM (550)

Series: XU leads 1-0

Line: XU by 2

XAVIER
Player Yr. Ht. PPG
Justin Cage Jr. 6-6 8.8
Brian Thornton Sr. 6-8 15.8
Justin Doellman Jr. 6-9 11.3
Dedrick Finn Sr. 6-1 5.4
Stanley Burrell So. 6-3 13.4

Coach: Sean Miller (27-14, second season; same overall)

CHARLOTTE
Player Yr. Ht. PPG
D. Alexander Jr. 6-5 16.4
Curtis Withers Sr. 6-8 16.3
Chris Nance Sr. 6-8 5.0
Leemire Goldwire So. 6-1 12.9
Mitchell Baldwin Sr. 6-2 6.1

Coach: Bobby Lutz (145-88, 8th season; same overall)

Several years ago, one friend of mine from Raleigh told me he asked his sports editor about doing a game advance for a "big game." His reply, "If it's so big, don't you think the school's fans should know before the pick up the paper the day of the game?"

Jim

And this has absolutely no relevance to the biggest gripe by Niner fans in this thread. Of course Charlotte 49er fans know about tonight’s game before they pick up the paper. The whole point is that the casual, non-Niner fan has no clue because the most popular newspaper in town barely mentions it. I know it’s not the Observer’s job to promote our program. That’s the responsibility of our marketing department who could certainly do a better job. But given the audience your paper reaches, I think it’s sorry that you guys can’t help get the word out a little more substantially. Just my opinion.

[QUOTE=Jim Utter;148642]Folks

I’m not going to make it a habit to come on here and defend The Observer or bash it, to me such trading of jarbs does very little in improving a product or changing people’s minds. I seriously doubt anyone who reads or posts here would read something regarding any topic and completely reverse their opinion because they stumbled on some great “insight.”

[B]What’s new? One more excuse IMO.[/B]

With regards to today’s game, I will point out a couple things, some which are not new. They are not “excuses,” since they will not change anyone’s mind, but simply more like a state of things are they are today.

For one, you will be hard pressed to find what you would normally consider “game advances” for hardly any college game any more, including the ACC. No. 1 ranked Duke is playing at Clemson today, a game The Observer will staff, and other than Ken Tysiac’s comments in Inside the ACC, there is only a capsule. The Bobcats - a professional team - receive nearly the same treatment, though sometimes game coverage is blended into previews of what’s next. I think that is an approach we have tried at The Observer. On Tuesday, there was a A-10 notebook with a lead on the La Salle-Charlotte game. There was also an inside college basketball feature on the Thornton kid from Xavier and how they were playing Charlotte on Saturday - far more information on the opponent than would have appeared in any advance story in today’s paper.

[B]I don’t give a rat’s a$$ about Duke and Clemson. Simply because this is “Charlotte” last time I checked.[/B]

Simply put, there are a 1000 ways for people to find out there is a game tonight, what The Observer tries to do is provide insight and analysis from its writers and give the reader a more broad-based look into what’s going on with all teams and in the conferences they play. It is not an easy job. Could the Inside the A-10 been dumped for a Niners-only advance story? Probably. Would it be worth the swap? I don’t think so. In this first season, not only do Charlotte fans want to know about their team, but also the 13 others they see on a regular basis they see didn’t before.

[B]There’s 1000 ways for the walmart tarholes fan find out if the holes play tonight, too. I bet if they play in Charlotte tonight for some sick reason there will be coverage. Again, I thought this is Charlotte.[/B]

There are a lot of things coming up which I think 49ers fans will enjoy: insights, interviews and features on people and prospective players which you will enjoy (I hope).

[B]When the NFL playoffs and Superbowl is over or the ACC stories are running dry I guess.[/B]

Several years ago, one friend of mine from Raleigh told me he asked his sports editor about doing a game advance for a “big game.” His reply, “If it’s so big, don’t you think the school’s fans should know before the pick up the paper the day of the game?”

[B]Cincinnati paper could do it. [/B]

I’m not saying that philosophy is right or wrong. I am only saying there are different approaches employed because of the increased use of the Internet, multi-media and space considerations. And also remember this, everything everyone here would desire to see in The Observer for Charlotte because of its “local school connection” is just as deserving to Davidson. If you put those wish lists together, what else would fit in the Sports section?

[B]I can see the toothless walmart tarhole fan using his laptop sitting on his tree stand checking out what Roy ate for breakfast before the game. I guess the Wildcats fan would have to let you guys hear it when you visit their board then.[/B]

Thanks. See you tonight.

Jim[/QUOTE]

This is why Charlotte paper suck.

[QUOTE=Jim Utter;148642]Folks
For one, you will be hard pressed to find what you would normally consider “game advances”…
[/QUOTE]

There would be a complete front page pre-game article if the tarholes were playing another team in Charlotte tonight, especially if the game was not sold out yet.

Why even bother?

[QUOTE=Jim Utter;148642]Folks

I’m not going to make it a habit to come on here and defend The Observer or bash it, to me such trading of jarbs does very little in improving a product or changing people’s minds. I seriously doubt anyone who reads or posts here would read something regarding any topic and completely reverse their opinion because they stumbled on some great “insight.”[/QUOTE]

Jim, an Observer writer or editor posting on here will never change our minds. What will change our minds is the paper actually looking like other major, respectable papers throughout the state and country. Did you look at the Cincinnati Enquirer’s page (the link is a few posts down). MULTIPLE ARTICLES! Why should our paper be any different? They have several major universities, pro sports, and I bet they even have high schools around there too. Why should we not expect the same from our paper? Mike said the Observer is flowing with cash, but for some reason the paper can’t find the money to represent their own city!

[QUOTE]

I’m not saying that philosophy is right or wrong. I am only saying there are different approaches employed because of the increased use of the Internet, multi-media and space considerations. And also remember this, everything everyone here would desire to see in The Observer for Charlotte because of its “local school connection” is just as deserving to Davidson. If you put those wish lists together, what else would fit in the Sports section?

[/QUOTE]

You know what, if you run out of room, add a page! You just cut out 20% of the paper without lowering prices. I bet you can find room.

No. 1 ranked Duke is playing at Clemson today, a game The Observer will staff, and other than Ken Tysiac's comments in Inside the ACC, there is only a capsule.

No. 1 or not, Duke isn’t located in Charlotte. And Duke vs. Clemson is not exactly a battle between two of the best teams in the league. Other papers all around the country seem to find the time/money/space to do gameday pieces. I don’t understand why the Oberver can’t.

And also remember this, everything everyone here would desire to see in The Observer for Charlotte because of its "local school connection" is just as deserving to Davidson.

Davidson’t program is not really the same caliber as ours, but I would have no problem with you giving them more coverage either. In fact, they probably deserve it.

If you put those wish lists together, what else would fit in the Sports section?

Is there some kind of limit to how much ink or paper you can use for the sports page?

I have not problem with you covering ACC schools even though they aren’t located in the immediate area, but I also think the local teams should get a lot more than you give them.

I guess it’s kind of pointless discussing this though… I can’t see anything changing while Mike P. is arround.

Why not go “Around the A-10” or “Inside the A-10” on Tuesdays and do game previews, matchups and player features on Niner game days??? Would make sense I don’t think anyone would object to that type of coverage for the same amount of space.

[QUOTE=Max Power;148670]
I guess it’s kind of pointless discussing this though… I can’t see anything changing while Mike P. is arround.[/QUOTE]

Here’s some advice for you. Be carfeful with your accusations. You may get sued.

I think most of the Observer staff went to UNC.
They could cover UNCC, Davidson, JCSU, & Winthrop equally, & that would be better that covering the Tar Holes 24/7. And the Observer gives more coverage to the Bobcats, even though, we’ve been here longer & we didn’t piss off over 1/2 the city by coming here.

I will chime in with just this. I dropped my Observer subscription about 2 years ago. About twice a year I get a call asking if I would be interested in restarting. I explain that I canceled for two reasons…

  1. Lack of Niner coverage.
  2. Obvious liberal bias.
    I have stated this on numerous occasions, but yet there are no changes. When the O says they only give what their market wants they are flat out lying… they are giving what they want to the market they want. I have a hard time feeling sorry for the money crunch that many papers are in, including the O. They basically have told me they don’t want my business, which is fine with me.

Absolutely ridiculous!

It would be more productive, assuming any of this CAN be productive between a message board and a newspaper, to list the things in today’s paper that you know or assume people would care about less than Niners basketball and could have been removed.

For example, I do not believe anyone here in Charlotte cares about hockey, or, not as much as major college basketball. Looking online, they have a one-paragraph advance for minor league hockey.

The artcile about Mularkey resigning as Bills head coach could have been one paragraph. It was SEVEN. If you did not know this happened before you opened the paper this morning, then you slept through the entire day yesterday.

The paper needs to evolve, in my opinion. People knew Mularkey resigned becuase they watched it on TV or saw it on the internet. But advances for games are “new” things that they did not get the day before.

The “Around the Nation” feature could have been dumped or shortened as well, since it gave you really nothing new and was one man’s picks for a tournament that is still a month + away.

I think if you want to help exact any change, you have to point out things like that which could have been dumped in favor of what you want to see.

Look folks, just quit reading and complaining about the Observer. It’s not going to EVER change until someone buys them. All we ever get is excuses.

If you want information, go to the newspaper web sites in the cities of our opponents. The Observer staff claims their coverage is how stories run in other locales, but if they looked at the coverage of the hometown college/university in cities where Knight-Ridder owns the newspaper, they would see that those schools get the coverage we are talking about with just as many other sports events as are found around Charlotte.

Heck, I may miss a good quote, but I can read about as much about the 49ers by checking the AP wire story in the internet 90 minutes after the game!

I really like what Dow did with the Xavier advances. The (color) pictures were great too.

at least we can look forward to the day when they go belly up

Charlotte really needs a hometown paper rather than an AP news feed. There was a time when the Observer was for the community, but that time has passed long ago.