If you need further proof why certain newspapers are having problems retaining readers, you need look no further than the front page of today’s Charlotte Observer.
Today both the Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer ran an AP wire story on how aviation is taxed and where and how the resulting revenues are spent. It’s a significant story, with widespread impacts. The writer, Bob Porterfield, does a good job of explaining a reasonably complex topic in a limited number of words.
The N&O ran it at what appears to be its full length of 1,100 words.
The Observer thought enough of the story to put it at the top of page A1 — and lead story in the paper — but then used literally only the first half of the wire story plus a separate boxed paragraph on the local impact (the new runway at Charlotte Douglas). At 550 words excluding the sidebar, it’s shorter than your typical opinion column. Unsurprisingly, the Observer’s version is unclear, far less informative, and has a markedly different emphasis than that of the full-length story.
But it goes beyond that. In effect, the aviation tax story and a story about Charlotte being a destination for movers (some 525 words) are just filler. The real top story — at 1,000 words, almost as much as the other two stories combined, and probably using more column inches — is the listing of the shows coming to the Blumenthal as part of the next Broadway Lights series next season.
A newspaper that doesn’t focus on actual news. Now explain to me again what the point is? Well, aside from as a way of keeping track of the success of Bank of Wachovia Energy’s corporate recruitment campaign…
