Charlotte Observer is losing both of its Carolina Panthers beat writers

[Ricky Spanish]

38 minutes ago, Greatman77 said:

This. If you are my age (50's), you will be the last generation to read a physical newspaper. My kids never have and they don't watch TV either. My daughter tells me she gets her news from some millennial Youtuber.

Philip Defranco?

If yes, she could do a hell of a lot worse. That guy tries to stay middle of the road and present both sides of every story he covers.

[MountaineerChemist10]

48 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

What's interesting is that even as a 50 something myself who used to LOVE newspapers, I read them less and less.

I recognize how computers / the internet and social media have really changed my brain.

1. I've stopped remembering phone numbers / birthdays because I have them saved in my phone.

2. My attention span is so much shorter. I rarely read even the best articles word for word anymore but scan quickly.

3. Even in the States with a physical newspaper in my hands, I rarely read many stories. I scan headlines for what's most interesting and read maybe only 20 or 25% of what I might have read in the past.

I still read a lot of books at least, but sustained focus has become a challenge.

Thank God i'm not the only one. My attention span is much much shorter than it was 10 years ago (senior year in college). That's why I've joined a book club recently; get back into reading, calm down & stop scanning articles so much.

I was afraid I was losing my mind...or am I?

[mc52beast]

Someone tell the Bills we have a great game day guy named Mick Mixon... I’ll pay the moving expenses

[Icege]

1 hour ago, KB_fan said:

What's interesting is that even as a 50 something myself who used to LOVE newspapers, I read them less and less.

I recognize how computers / the internet and social media have really changed my brain.

1. I've stopped remembering phone numbers / birthdays because I have them saved in my phone.

2. My attention span is so much shorter. I rarely read even the best articles word for word anymore but scan quickly.

3. Even in the States with a physical newspaper in my hands, I rarely read many stories. I scan headlines for what's most interesting and read maybe only 20 or 25% of what I might have read in the past.

I still read a lot of books at least, but sustained focus has become a challenge.

As somebody that has lived with ADHD all of my life, this is literally my every day and it fascinates me how folks are/were able to maintain mental focus on anything that isn't of great interest to them.

[TheSpecialJuan]

2 hours ago, KB_fan said:

Interesting discussion.  

If Jourdan IS leaving (which I still haven't seen publicly announced / confirmed) I will be very sad.  I enjoy her wit / fun metaphors, combined with her solid research and football smarts.  She's been a very very solid part of the Panthers beat. Consistently asks excellent questions at pressers.

Beyond the question of the Panthers beat, the decline of local journalism really concerns me, even from far away. Trusted, reliable news sources seem like a pretty important foundation to democracy, whether in Charlotte or West Africa.

Social media and personalized news feeds allow people to live in their own bubbles and never have their biases challenged by good writing from an opposing viewpoint.

I won't say more lest this become too political for this forum!

Well said 

[Panthro]

11 hours ago, t96 said:

Jourdan is leaving the observer, no clue where she’s going but wouldn’t be shocked if it’s a promotion to something more national...

[4Corners]

3 hours ago, joemac said:

What is their business model?  Is it different than other online sports sites?

CO is owned by McClatchey - which also owns the awful N&O in Raleigh. The “business model” for the N&O is to be a editorial based, completely biased, fake news mouthpiece for the ABCer crowd. They are devoted to spinning everything negatively toward UNC. Rag is still chasing clicks by talking about the UNC academic “scandal” crap. I’ll give them credit though - they know their audience and the NCST and dook fans eat it up. 

[ellis]

A wise man in the journalism game once told me: you should shop for media content the same way you’d shop for a car or house.  

Millions of people indiscriminately gobbling up every piece of “news” on the buffet line has given life to a plague of misinformation manifestation

[MechaZain]

This sucks. Marcel was quickly becoming my favorite of all of them.

[Chaos]

5 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

The Observer will hire more. They seem to have a serious retention problem though. Thats 3 beat writers in just a year. Used to be a beat writer would be around for decades. 

Remember Ron Green? 

[Greatman77]

2 hours ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Philip Defranco?

If yes, she could do a hell of a lot worse. That guy tries to stay middle of the road and present both sides of every story he covers.

Yes, that is who she gets her news from.

[XOBlackxJokerOX]

13 hours ago, t96 said:

Jourdan is leaving the observer, no clue where she’s going but wouldn’t be shocked if it’s a promotion to something more national...

Long overdue. Some folks forgot, I didn't. 

[Ricky Spanish]

35 minutes ago, Greatman77 said:

Yes, that is who she gets her news from.

Honestly, Defranco is a solid dude. He puts both sides on blast regularly, provides each side's POV on a topic, then provides his personal opinion on it. Through him, I see both sides of a situation as opposed to only the left or right side of it from social media's outrage. Can't tell you how many times I've been on Reddit and seen the newest trump/republican bashing post, only to see Defranco cover it and provide a full context/alternative POV for the story. This allows you to really form your own opinion on it once all facts are available. Removes the echo chamber of social media by doing so.

The biggest gripes against him are that his video thumbnails are very clickbaity, but he's upfront and transparent about it saying if he didn't do it, he wouldn't get nearly as many views, and therefore money - and that he does have a boner for youtube and its drama. He dedicates a good portion of his weekly shows to covering it quite a bit, but again, it leads to more views and brings more people in to see other more important and relevant stories. 

He's probably the best representation of middle of the road news that I can think of these days. Everyone else has an agenda to persuade, his agenda is to inform. 

[AggieLean]

Hate we’re losing Marcel