Right on, Write-ons at the N&R and N&O…..

If you checked yesterday’s sports section in the News and Record you saw a story on the Athletes from the Carolinas and the ACC that are going to the 2008 Olympics. Not a bad article at all, but it was written by one of the High Point Enterprise’s top sports writers Tom Berry. The writer from the High Point Enterprise with an article on the front page of the N&R sports section? That’s cozy but is it a bit crazy in the new trend of overall sports and news coverage?

One of our associates from GREENSBOROSports.com contacted the High Point Enterprise sports editor on Thursday afternoon and Mark McKinney(HPE sports editor) told our guy that he does not like this practice at all. “I am not happy about it, but what can I do”, said McKinney. “My hands are tied and I have no contol over this whatsoever”.

McKinney is not pleased with seeing his HPE writer’s work showing up in the News and Record. The same can be said when the writings of Greer Smith, another Enterprise sportswriter, showed up recently in the N&R. These gentlemen are excellent writers but they work for the High Point Enterprise not the Greensboro News and Record. Just like today(Friday), when an article by Frank Dascenzo of the Durham Hearld Sun showed on the front page of the News and Record.

The News and Record has plenty of good writers why not use Ed Hardin, Rob Daniels, Robert Bell, Tom Keller, Dustin Long, Dioni Wise and others more often? Margaret Moffat Banks is now the assistant sports editor to Joe Sirera, why doesn’t she turn out a few sports stories?

Don’t get me wrong, I like reading Tom Berry’s articles, I just read one of his stories on the new baseball coach at High Point University in last Sunday’s High Point Enterprise. True reasoning says if you are going to use Berry, Greer Smith, and Frank Dascenzo, why not go ahead and bring on John DeLong, and Bill Cole from the Winston-Salem Journal? I like their work too, and I do remember a few months back when the N&R carried a story by Tom Sorenson of the Charlotte Observer.

In one of last week’s papers from Raleigh, I did catch another Sorenson article in the N&O. Sorenson is showing up all over the place. How is that we now are seeing writers from competing newpapers in publications like the N&R and the N&O? Mark McKinney of the High Point Enterprise has the answer. It’s the McClatchy Newspaper system.

The McClatchy Newspapers own other papers like the HPE or they own the rights to farm out stories to other papers based on their ownership or syndication rights. The word is that the writers such as Tom Berry and others end up gettting nothing extra monetarily when their work is distributed or farmed out to the other papers. McClatchy owns the distribution rights to all of the articles and they will place them in as many papers and in any papers they want to. Publications such as the N&R and the N&O would pay a distribution or syndication fee to McClatchy, they sure wouldn’t be getting these stories for free. In the long run, McClatchy is the one who is cashing in.

Don’t be surprised if in the near future, that you pick up your Sunday paper and see articles on the front page of the N&R sports section by Tom Berry, Greer Smith, Frank Dascenzo, John DeLong, Bill Cole, Tom Sorenson, along with Ed Hardin and Rob Daniels on the sides.

One thought on “Right on, Write-ons at the N&R and N&O…..

  1. The N&O cut a bunch of jobs a few weeks back and was going to “consolidate” a lot of their state coverage out of The Charlotte Observer. I guess sports was also included in that.

    Maybe they can find a way to make money on the internet and hire some of those people back soon, but I kind of doubt it. It’s been going on for years with other chains sharing stories, Media General-style. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Worse for the sportswriters and employee humps, most of all….

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