News
Most Recently Answered Questions
Questions 21 - 30 of 344 (Page 3 of 35)Submitted by Boyce Williams from High Point, NC
Q:Why has the Observer abandoned High Point? There are three vending machines that were removed this week, how will I get a Sunday paper?
A: Boyce, I regret to tell you that the cost of delivering to High Point has reached a point where we are unable to continue there. We do hope you will keep reading us on the Web. See more about that below.
Submitted by Elizabeth Weiler from Winston Salem. NC
Q:Much to my chagrain, I was told this week that the Observer is no longer available in Forsyth County, specifically Winston Salem. Your paper is very popular here, and there are many disappointed readers. I would assume that this decision was made because of the cost of transporting the paper. Surely there are other solutions........increase the cost of the OBserver to those in outlying areas, delivery by train, delivery by bus, etc. Please reconsider-I sorely miss the paper, and reading it on-line is a poor substitution for the pleasure of sitting down daily with the entire paper to peruse.
A: Elizabeth, I hope that someday, soon, our Web versions of the Charlotte Observer will become a more welcome format for readers like youself. We regret stopping delivery in areas like Winston-Salem. But the expense involved has become too great for us to continue. Specifically, we no longer deliver in Forsyth, Guilford and Davidson counties. We have studied the feasibility of price increases, but that appears to be an equally unwelcome idea for most readers affected in these areas. To date, our best alternatives are Charlotte.com or our electronic edition, available in a subscription format at Newsstand.com. The good news is that the content you enjoy in the Observer is still available. But we also acknowledge the bad news for readers who do not find electronic editions as satisfying as a printed newspaper. Readers and the newspapers they read are in transition. We'll keep producing that content and hope that the formats will continue to evolve in ways that work for most people.
Submitted by Scott from Charlotte, NC
Q:What happened to the "South Meck Neighborhood" sections on Thursdays? My wife and I have enjoyed this section since its inception. The last couple of weeks it has just been advertisements and a list of daily activities in the area (i.e. no more articles). Thanks,
A: Scott, I'm glad you are enjoying our Neighbors sections. We have restructured the sections so they now all are published on Sundays. Your section, Neighbors of Southern Mecklenburg, was among four sections (the others being in Cabarrus, Union and Lake Norman)that formerly found enough advertising support to also publish on Thursdays. Unfortunately, that support has fallen off and continues to be affected by the ongoing enconomic downturn in our region. The most popular features from Thursday have been moved to the Sunday edition. Our goal with Neighbors is to bring readers news of their own part of town, much in the tradition of a good weekly community newspaper. This works well for readers, who find faces, places and issues particularly familiar to them. It also works for advertisers who are focused on a particular area of the city, or who need rates more affordable than they would pay by advertising in the entire newspaper. We hope to keep doing a good job for both readers and advertisers with our Sunday editions.
Submitted by Bill from Charlotte, NC
Q:Has there been a lot of serious crime and no arrests recently? It seems like murders and drive by shootings everywhere. I saw vehicle descripions etc. in the news reports. Is it just me?
A: Bill, I can't speak to arrest rates, but yes, crime is rising in several categories. In a story we published June 10, Clay Barbour reported that for the first four months of 2008, reports of violent crime in Charlotte-Mecklenburg increased 11.5 percent and property crime grew 10.2 percent compared with the same period in 2007. (In comparison, the rate of violent crime in Charlotte has declined over the past decade.) In 2007, Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents saw their lowest rate of violent crime in 15 years. The rate – 960.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people – dropped 7.2 percent from 2006. Charlotte's rate of property crime per 100,000 people rose in 2007, up by 1.5 percent from 2006.
Submitted by Mary from Charlotte, NC
Q:I'm disappointed in this Q&A column. Your newspaper is crumbling around you and you show up every few weeks now and answer silly questions about college rivalries. What's the future of The Charlotte Observer? How much longer do you see it publishing?
A: Mary, I don't know how you drew your conclusions, but the newspaper is not crumbling. I've addressed some of the changes at the Observer in recent columns that appeared online and in the newspaper. Interestingly, people submitting questions here have not asked about it. Your question is the first to even allude to those changes. The purpose of this column is to respond to readers' questions, whether others find them "silly" or not. (I don't.)So, thank you for YOUR question! Here's my answer. I expect the Charlotte Observer to publish for many, many generations to come. I can't tell you how long it will publish as a printed newspaper, if that's what you are asking. Readers will decide how they want to read their Observer. At this point, however, a heck of a lot of them still like their news in print. In fact, the printed paper still attracts more than 500,000 readers each weekday and more than 700,000 on Sundays. No other media outlet in this region even comes close to that kind of audience. Don't believe me? Ask them for their audience numbers. What about the Web? Our Charlotte.com is also the community's No. 1 site for local news and information. More than 2 million readers a month go there. Again, no other local medium comes close. I don't point out our audiences in arrogance. I'm grateful that this many people turn to us. Because they do, we can continue the mission of bringing this region local news and information that is necessary for healthy communities. As I mentioned in a column last week, it was very painful recently to eliminate 123 jobs across our company. This was the result of an economic downturn affecting many companies in our region. But any company sought after by audiences of these sizes has a bright future ahead. The Observer has thrived in a variety of shapes and sizes for more than 120 years because it speaks to a need in our communities. As long as we continue to do that, we'll be here for you.
Submitted by bryan from charlotte
Q:How can you sit there and tell the Gamecocks fan to tune into The State since it is a Hometown newspaper, when your Observer doesn't even give the Charlotte 49ers enough press. Every football issue that comes up, your writers have negative things to write. News Flash...If you get football, more people will read your paper. I think I would tell my writers to start persuasivally writing.
A: The key phrase here is "enough press." We do cover the major sports at UNC Charlotte. And the more that our readers follow their seasons, the more we will cover them. Witness our coverage of Davidson's recent run for the NCAA baskeball championship. What you've set up here is the classic "chicken-and-egg" argument. As this thinking goes, "our programs will grow more popular if only we get MORE news coverage." I agree that coverage helps the public notice programs, then decide whether to follow them. But no amount of coverage will ignite a program. That comes from the team. There is no question in my mind that readers of our sports pages are well acquainted with the 49ers. We follow them more closely than any other media. As for football at UNC Charlotte, that's an issue much bigger than support for sports. It involves the entire university community. So, no, we won't advocate an outcome on our news pages through "persuasive writing." We'll do what we always set out to do: report the facts as completely as we can establish them and let the community decide.
Submitted by David H. Dulin from Charlotte
Q:Why doesn't the Observer give more coverage to the accomplishments of East Carolina University; academically, serving the state and in sports?? Nationally recognized medical school which brings primary doctors to the underserved region, soon to open dental school bringing counties in eastern North Carolina their only dentists. Sports accomplishments. It is the third largest University in the state (approaching 27,000 undergraduates will soon pass Chapel Hill) I have always though the Observer as a regional paper serving both Carolinas. Hey Greenville is only four hours from Charlotte now!
A: At first, I thought you had confused Greenville, N.C., with Greenville, S.C. But you obviously know where East Carolina is. So I assume you are suggesting that a regional newspaper would report more on ECU. No one would argue that ECU is a major institution that is only growing in stature. So, we should acknowledge news there that has statewide impact. We aren't in any position to cover events there on a routine basis, however. Our regional focus is on the portions of North and South Carolina that are roughly in a 60- to 80-mile radius of Charlotte. At the same time we'll go anywhere in the Carolinas, or beyond, to cover stories important to a majority of readers in this region.
Submitted by Charles Martin from Lancaster
Q:Do not count on more Gamecock coverage from this paper unless it involves arrests,scandals, or getting beat by the "Tobacco Road"gang.My brother lives in Florida and is always emailing me with news from USC that I never see in the Observer.I get my news from the State newspaper website.Hope this clears up the confusion about the Observer coverage of the Palmetto State sports.
A: Actually, Charles, we will write about extraordinary happenings at USC, both good and bad. But you are right in that they would need to be extraordinary to the general audience of sports fans. You are also right to point readers to The State. In Columbia, sports is all about USC (literally the hometown team) and The State can be counted on to cover every single detail.
Submitted by Neal from Monroe, NC
Q:I graduated from the University of South Carolina and I am puzzled at the lack of sports coverage given to the "Gamecock" teams. There are a great deal of Alumni living in the Charlotte region whom I feel deserve better coverage from the Observer. Is it possible to provide better coverage or is the paper limited to information sent from the various schools media releases?
A: We know we have a large number of Gamecocks fans in our region. But we're unusual in that we track many teams with significant fan bases here. Here is how Sports Editor Mike Persinger explains it. "We are limited more by the fractured nature of our readership in terms of college allegiances than we are by the information available. Appalachian State, UNC Charlotte, Clemson, Davidson, Duke, Johnson C. Smith, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Wake Forest - fans of all these area schools and more expect coverage in the Observer. And that list doesn't include the schools for thousands of newcomers who arrive here each year from other areas of the country." Elsewhere in the country, some newspapers can be singular in their focus. In Kansas, football means Kansas and Kansas State. In Columbia, it's the University of South Carolina, plus some Clemson. "We are, by necessity, split many more ways," Mike says. "What we try to do is recognize moments for each school and be there when they happen. We covered all of South Carolina's major football games, and we were there at the NCAA baseball regional in Raleigh that included the Gamecocks. "So it's not about availability. It's about spreading the coverage around."
Submitted by Robin Smith from Charlotte
Q:Hi I love the columns written by Steve Stoeckel. Is there any possibility that he would be an Observer regular? He is a very telented writer with a fresh perspective.
A: A lot of people like Steve. I met him last weekend and got to see another side of him, playing electric guitar at a local gathering. Some of you know that Steve is one of the Spongetones, a band that has rocked area audiences for years. I'll mention your appreciation of his guest columns to our editorial page editor, Ed Williams. I don't think Steve is looking for another gig, but it's good to know he has a following as a columnist, too.
