For a few years starting in 2006, Greensboro was in the thick of it. With a lively corps of serious bloggers, we had some inspiring conferences, some big ideas and the local News & Record was, for about a minute, involved and forward-looking, seemingly ready to be a part of a revolution. It even created a new initiative to promote citizen journalism and put the very smart and experienced Lex Alexander in charge of it.
That lasted about six months, as I recall. Although the News & Record was still a robust organization then, especially compared to the shell it has become, it was bleeding print subscribers. Its response to that decline of print circulation is where the News & Record made a fateful turn away from possibilities and towards the comfort of a familiar but lethal past.
There's a reason why Greensboro is "The Stunted City." More from the Greensboro 101 blog post:
Under the guidance of then-publisher Robin Saul, instead of remaking the newspaper into a technologically robust enterprise of the future, the News & Record chose to turn away from the future and circle the wagons around its legacy business.
The dreaded "Culture of No" is so entrenched in the city's DNA that even the official paper of record wasn't about to shake it off. An old school publisher with an old school attitude towards new media only made things that more predictable.
It's been said by John Hammer and others that Berkshire Hathaway could potentially merge the N&R and the Winston-Salem Journal and have everything operate out of the Twin City. Given the Fishwrap's building situation, no one would be surprised.
Rest in peace, News & Record. I wish we could say you tried.
When the publication truly bites the dust, there will be three groups to look out for:
- The city's elite interests. They'll miss the paper the most since it already echoes their talking points anyway.
- Those in the know. By that, I mean bloggers ranging the political spectrum and other people who are more in-tuned to Greensboro politics. This group won't miss the paper at all. Some of them will cheer its downfall while others will just sigh due to everything Smith Jr laid out. The paper's unwillingness to embrace technological changes, longstanding claims of ideological bias, an aversion to creative ideas and its long known pro-establishment bias in favor of the various political clans will all be cited by this group.
- The general public. Some will go with their lives while others are likely to panic.
