Extremely odd, misleading, and ethically suspect story in the Charlotte Observer today on a proposal by Center City Partners and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority to ban conventional newspaper racks and limit newspaper distribution in an as-yet undefined area Uptown to city-owned modular boxes.
Spot the problem here:
Several publishers said they approved of the idea, including Charlotte Observer Publisher Ann Caulkins. They noted that other cities, including Raleigh, Atlanta and San Francisco have similar programs.
“I think it’s a great idea for the beautification of Tryon Street,” Caulkins said. She praised Center City Partners for working through the details – down to the placement of the racks – with publishers.
“I think they have thought it out very well,” she said.
Ann Caulkins is, of course, on the board of directors of Center City Partners, a rather important fact that the Observer story fails to mention.
While the story notes that several publishers question the timing of the move and whether this is a real issue — valid issues certainly — the article, unsurprisingly, misses some even bigger questions. Who suggested this in the first place? Was it perhaps Ann Caulkins? Is this expressed desire for ‘beautification’ — which would be a limit on the ability of publications to brand themselves — consistent with and/or influenced by Charlotte Observer efforts to retain market share and advertising dollars?
And who are the other publishers besides Caulkins that approve of this idea? (We know it isn’t Gerald Johnson of The Charlotte Post.)
Full disclosure: I’m an associate editor of Carolina Journal — have been for over seven years now — and we do have racks Uptown.
