Opinion
It’s time to modernize NC’s public-notice laws
The purpose of public notices is to reach as many people as possible, but the current process limits access instead of increasing it.
Opinion
News consumers deserve better than automated click bait
Baiting someone to click on an irrelevant article may be a small victory, but it's a bad long-term strategy. Because some of the those who click may never click again.
Opinion
NC media panel: Internet obliterated traditional news business. Now what?
Over the weekend, I was privileged to be in attendance at the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Liberty Conference. Among the highlights of the weekend (which included recording an episode of our weekly show “The Debrief” in the hotel lobby) was a media panel, hosted by Carolina Journal editor-in-chief Donna King, discussing the current state of...
News
Local bills seek to allow more counties to post public notices online
More N.C. counties would be allowed to post public notices online instead of paying to run them in newspapers, under two local bills introduced in the House. House Bill 51 covers 13 counties along the coast; House Bill 35 would extend electronic notices to 11 counties primarily in the Piedmont and foothills. Nearly every county...
Opinion
We’ll miss newspapers, but we need journalism more than ever
I used to live in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, when I was young and could barely remember anything of substance. Just snippets of ragged memories. Things such as Roberto Clemente’s home run in the seventh game of the 1971 World Series. My grandparents’ grocery store, just off their kitchen, where I would steal “pop” and baseball cards,...
Opinion
The stately pillars of the Fourth Estate must remain strong
The pillars of the Fourth Estate, i.e. the press, are taking a beating. “Fake news” has become a ridiculous cliche, yet the mantra is starting to damage those pillars like so much wind and rain. The stately columns are weathered. Cracked and chipped. Tweets and social media posts declare news “fake” without provocation or investigation....
Opinion
Newspapers, in some form, must be saved, but how?
Newspapers refuse to die. On a superficial level, that’s a good thing. For as long as I can remember, newspaper publishers, editors, and the large corporations that pull the proverbial strings have made innumerable and mostly ill-fated attempts to revive an industry and business plan that began cracking around the edges some 30 years ago....
News
Cooper vetoes bill that newspaper industry has called a job killer
Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would change the way local governments issue public notices and referred to the measure as an attack on newspapers. It was Cooper’s eighth veto this year. In his veto message, Cooper, a Democrat, said the Republican-led General Assembly “used the levers of big government to attack important institutions in our state...
Opinion
Government Needs to Learn From Newspapers
Liberal they may be, but daily newspapers are also businesses that are governed by economic realities.
Opinion
The reality sinks in for newspaper executives
One newspaper executive sees the light: Listen to digital people and put them in charge.
Opinion
Papers’ Love of Government Hurts Circulation
I’ve given a lot of thought to the issue of declining circulation among daily newspapers. I was managing editor of one for a 15-year period that coincided with the downward trend. I swear it wasn’t my fault. In fact, what I learned during that period was that newspapers, enamored as they are of liberal orthodoxy and political correctness, are simply unable to solve the problem.
Opinion
Now Who’s Paranoid?
For decades conservatives have complained about an unfair liberal bias in the news media. Now the situation has changed, and it's the Left who sees black helicopters circling above American newsrooms.
