Last week, N&O executive editor John Drescher talked to us about changes in the newsroom. Advertising dollars are shrinking, so the newsroom is shrinking. We're forced to find new ways to report the news for an increasingly sophisticated but fragmented audience.

The Independent is doing a story about us. Media writer Fiona Morgan called yesterday to ask how the changes have affected the Orange bureau. My first impulse was not to say anything, but I've spoken with her before and heard her speak at the Community Church a few years ago. And besides it seemed two-faced not to speak with someone when we ask people questions every day.

So this is what I said. The Orange bureau had seven reporters three years ago. They reported for both the N&O and the Chapel Hill News. Today we have five, including one on maternity leave, which means we have four. We also lost a clerk/writer who wrote strictly for the Chapel Hill News. The smaller bureau means we can't cover as much as before or in the same way.

[More:]

I could get depressed. But I worked at another newspaper during lean years and a sale, which gives me perspective. I told someone last week as long as I'm working for a newspaper, I'm glad and fortunate to be working for this company. The people here are smart. We pursue big stories aggressively.

I told Fiona we get help when we need it. The N&O can put three reporters, two photographers and a researcher on the Eve Carson case. On the Chapel Hill News side, we are collaborating with community groups. Two weeks ago the garden club asked us to preview their annual tour. I suggested one of their board members write the story. She did a great job and it ran on the front page. Later this month we're running a series of essays on living with autism, an outgrowth of our recent meeting with The Arc, an agency serving people with developmental disabilities. The essays will touch you.

The thing is, our role is evolving. I tell folks we need to ask ourselves two questions every week: What's cool? And what's important? If we consistently do that, we will continue to report stories that entertain, surprise and inform you.

I told Fiona stories like the Carson case and yesterday's piece on the Buckhorn Road flea market -- the flip side of development I told her the Independent would do -- make me proud to work here. But it's an ongoing thing, so keep in touch. Tell us what you think.

04/15/08 at 12:51
Here is an e-mail from a reporter in our Raleigh newsroom that goes to the issues in the above post and two others on OrangeChat featuring journalism professor Phil Meyer..

The future is on the Web, but nobody has figured out how to make enough money on the Web to sustain journalism at the level that L.A. Times readers have come to expect. When you’re the editor of a paper and you’re engaged in news, you’re probably not the best person to make sweeping changes, because you’re going after stories, spending all your hours on specific things. But if I had it to do over again, I might have taken some time off and tried to figure out where the Web was going and tried to do something about it. .... I love newspapers. When I stand back, though, I know it’s not important that the world have large print papers around, but it is necessary that there be large teams of paid reporters covering town halls, cops, courts, governments, wars, and so forth, and the businesses to sustain that kind of coverage are ceasing to exist. That is a profound question of public policy. Who is going to pay the bills? Alternatively, how poorly informed can the American public become and still succeed at democratic self-government?

-- John Carroll, LAT's editor, 2000-05

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/04/former_la_times_editors_s.php

04/17/08 at 19:37
For as small as Orange county is relative to the Triangle, you guys do a great job. I hope that this change does not cause the coverage to suffer.