Charlotte Observer is losing both of its Carolina Panthers beat writers

[RoaringRiot]

17 minutes ago, hepcat said:

Yea there are too many free sources of mid level reporting to pay for the Athletic. Bill Voth has been solid since he joined the Panthers and they self report pretty well, but there definitely needs to be an independent source for Panthers news and we all know David Newton isn’t going to be enough.

There are several currently

[SetfreexX]

I only knew who this was because I saw him on a Rodrigue tweet. 

[45catfan]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Media coverage is changing in a big way around here. If the Panthers could flick a switch and have its own in house Media group be the exclusive provider they would, and each year they move closer to that. 

I would be torn because now your national sites hob-knob the large market teams while smaller market fan seem to thirst for more news because it's scarce.   If the news is sourced by the teams themselves, you know it will be filtered and as with the Panthers official site, painfully slow to break news.

[Jeremy Igo]

8 minutes ago, 45catfan said:

I would be torn because now your national sites hob-knob the large market teams while smaller market fan seem to thirst for more news because it's scarce.   If the news is sourced by the teams themselves, you know it will be filtered and as with the Panthers official site, painfully slow to break news.

They do a decent job now of not filtering it too much. Problem is when the competition goes away they will move to filter more and more until it is all fluff like the years past.

[trueblade]

2 hours ago, Adb6368 said:

I stopped reading when the observer decided it was a smart idea to put a page limit on free reads. 

I understand this, and you're not the only one, but they've got to do something. Good thread here about newspapers and their future if you're interested.

 

[Dex]

1 minute ago, bull123 said:

Pathetic...observer used to be a good paper until their editorial staff took over...way too expensive for their dribble...advertisers and readers have abandoned them and they don’t make any money

Reminds me of season 5 of HBO's The Wire, the greatest show in the history of television.

 

 

 

Less integrity, less money, less talent and more sensationalism. The death of true journalism.

[Jeremy Igo]

It is all been pretty interesting to watch over the past 15 years from behind the scenes.

 

The Panthers used to need the media as much as the media needed them. Those days are long gone. The internet and social media have completely demolished the barrier of entry to providing information on a mass scale. No printing press needed. No distribution. No paid advertising.

Anyone under 50 and interested in the Panthers know they can go right to the source and follow them on any social media platform and their web page. For the vast majority of Panthers fans, that is plenty. The Observer is an after thought. The hard core fans need more, and that will sustain joints like this and RR, but the Observer and even ESPN to some degree are hurting due to huge overheads.

Now instead of the Observer seen as a necessary evil, they are the competition as far as the Panthers are concerned. They are likely happy to see such turnover there.

[KaseKlosed]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Well, Cam was in the wrong, so....

She was cynical way before that incident 

[KaseKlosed]

1 hour ago, WarPanthers89 said:

It’s funny how people look past that and blame Jourdan. Cam did not look good coming out of that situation 

She was cynical before that incident. Cam had enough of her shat

[Jeremy Igo]

8 minutes ago, KaseKlosed said:

She was cynical before that incident. Cam had enough of her shat

Not at all accurate having witnessed her interactions for a year.

[Cary Kollins]

17 minutes ago, bull123 said:

Pathetic...observer used to be a good paper until their editorial staff took over...way too expensive for their dribble...advertisers and readers have abandoned them and they don’t make any money

 

It has nothing to do with editorial changes and everything to do with print media in general.

[Devil Doc]

I can tell you this, a good friend of mine went to school for Sports Writing, and he is really really good. The problem is, the pay sucks, literally. I mean its not BAD, but his problem was that any Joe Smoe from the street freelances to be a reporter, then undercuts him,  which lowers his value. He worked for the Government and wrote for the local newspaper... trust me.. he didnt make much. He said, being a sports writer or reporter is not what is used to be, you can get news online free, or from other sources, which makes our job obsolete. I think he was onto something when he told me this 6 years ago. 

[Jeremy Igo]

The only real problem I have with any of this is that the Panthers have taken and continue to take public money. As such, they owe it to the community to give the local media all of the access they themselves have.

If they didn't use our money I would have no issue with them just keeping all news in-house. They are just an entertainment company afterall. Nothing of actual importance.

But since they use taxpayer funds they should be obligated to give outside media the exact same opportunity to cover what their own in house media does.

[LinvilleGorge]

Newspapers as a model have been dying for my entire adult life. Seeing one is like driving past a Sears. Like, really? Those still actually exist?