Circling back around on Jeff’s most recent post on McClatchy’s situation, I’m struck by Jack Betts’ column in Sunday’s Observer. It’s basically a short history of the Observer reporting in Raleigh. It ends with:

If you have a question about what’s going on in Raleigh, give us a holler. And in the meantime, keep reading. You’ll be hearing from us.

There’s a certain irony here. Exactly the sort of cut other newspapers have been making recently — The Asheville Citizen-Times and Winston-Salem Journal come to mind — is eliminating exactly the position Betts holds, the Raleigh-based state affairs columnist/editorial board member.

And doing the math, Betts, who graduated from Carolina in 1968, is approaching retirement age. Who will be his replacement in a few years? The answer probably is no one.