On November 15, the Courier will become a paid site. You will not be able to see their online content (much less comment) unless you pay for a subscription.
As a battle-scarred Randolph County blogger, I've been asked by some of the locals for my "take", so I'll give it.
For the record, I'm not alone in my take.
First, let's talk about the changes announced in Ray's Sunday (11/8) Editorial (I'd link it, but I've been banned for my provocative "potentially-libelous" commentary on the Courier's site - we'll get to the notion of "potential libel" in a minute).
Criscoe loves Mary Anderson's court stories, so she's going to be doing more of that - in both the civil and criminal arenas. She's also going to be focusing on stories of local import (i.e. Asheboro).
My problem with Mary Anderson is that she has a real knack for twisting someone's words to suit her bias or boss's intent (it's probably better than walking out or putting down one's pen and not reporting a story . . . but not by much). A great example is the way she turned an acknowledgement of Keith Criscoe's apology to Pat and Mike Bradshaw (for well, being Keith, when this happened) into wholesale praise for the former Asheboro City Councilman turned North Carolina Commerce Secretary.
That was just a LOAD of steaming horse-hockey.
And just you never mind that FOR YEARS, Ray has completely ignored a local story that would turn Garland Yates' warped notions of Randolph County "justice for all (the right people)" upside down . . . in total butt-kissing service to his biggest advertiser, Randolph Hospital.
The most amusing bit about Ray's latest piece was that according to him, Mary Anderson's stories generate a lot of online hits/comments. The folks who contacted me were thinking that, especially lately, it might not be so much Anderson's stories, but the commentary on those stories (commentary which Ray has taken to deleting) - particularly by another local Mary - that generated a good portion of that traffic.
The thing I'm hearing most lately from a lot of folks is, "I had no idea this was going on . . . just who do these people think they are?"
And the statement before the question, ladies & gentlemen, is EXACTLY how Ray wants it.
(P.S. As for the answer to the question, they're "the right people" darlin . . . and in Ray's great scheme of things, they matter more than you or me;)
Meanwhile, Chip Womick is being returned to the "goal" originally envisioned for him when he was first hired years ago . . . the "big picture", human interest stories.
It's really the only thing the Courier can do with this Jerry Bledsoe wannabe . . . as the Chipper has ZERO credibility anymore in anything remotely associated with news coverage.
It also bears pointing out that, in this era of healthcare "reform", Womick has long ignored a Pulitzer-worthy human interest story in which a homegrown Pediatrician trained at Baptist & Brenners (and recruited back to Asheboro despite being surgically mauled as a child at Randolph Hospital) elected not to give into threats . . . roll over, go back to sleep and let a newborn-baby-whose-care-was-being-criminally-bungled-by-someone-else die . . . and for her trouble, got brutally fired, SLAPP-sued, and swindled by perjury, contempt and fraud when she fought back.
Moreover, as the local economy tanked (courtesy of fine, upstanding university President candidates like Mike Miller), Chip and Ray have also determinedly avoided any examination or public scrutiny of those ever-increasing executive salaries at "non-profit" Randolph Hospital (let the doctors and nurses and patients EAT CAKE).
It's pretty "in depth" stuff, but never you mind (for instance, in getting SLAPP'ed around, I became a bit of an backyard-dog expert on slander and libel).
I've digressed. In becoming a "paid site", it's my opinion that the Courier Tribune is cutting their own throats online.
Why? Well, because the Courier is already well over five years behind the times in terms of developing a strong online brand . . . especially compared to the N&R just up the road (of course, given John Robinson's role in the evolution of my own online signature . . . and Mike Baron's . . . the GSO N&R is not exactly a contender for any local prizes in the investigative or "citizen" journalism departments).
Accordingly, the Courier just doesn't have the Web presence or, indeed the print readership/interest to do this successfully . . . ESPECIALLY if, after just six months, they're already deleting comments because of what Ray calls "potential libel".
(While we're on that subject, these days the term "potential libel" . . . which is clearly designed to instill fear and quell legitimate criticism from those who don't know any better . . . only cracks me up. It's purely and simply journalistic cowardice. Any time Ray Criscoe wants to see the original sworn court and/or discovery/medical documents that back up every word of the claims I've been making against some of Asheboro's most right-honorable citizens on this blog for over five years . . . and the OPINIONS I have EARNED . . . he can name the time and the place, and we'll chat. This source would even risk having to immediately bathe after a Schmidly sighting and meet him at Councilman Clark Bell's favorite restaurant, The Pig.)
All the banning and deleting is just pissing people off.
Ray's antics are also yet another fairly brazen attempt to cut off, monopolize and control the dialogue & flow of information at the local level. Indeed, Ray's 20/400 "vision" is that Courier Tribune will become just another exclusive club for "the right people" in a "dying town" . . . where the mill-town kings & queens can talk amongst themselves and vote themselves awards - as they've been doing for years.
It's the reason the man-in-the-bully-pulpit can take his "cyber-bully" label and shove it where the half-sun-on-the-website-I-cannot-access doesn't shine.
Buzz Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields loves it when I talk about the Lake Wobegon effect (i.e. illusory superiority) as it applies to Randolph County.
Well, Ray Criscoe is trying to build a kind of Lake Wobegon Dam online . . . building a wall around fetid water.
The much larger newspapers in North Carolina (with much stronger Web signatures and certainly much better reputations) don't do what Ray is planning. Their print or online subscription entitles a reader to"exclusive" access to certain stories, but it does not restrict access to everything by the casual Web surfer.
What the Courier is trying to do is basically create a kind "artificial scarcity", and, in turn, a demand for their "brand".
But here's the thing about Ray's "brand" of journalism: It's a big Internet (I believe that's what JR and Ed Cone told me). And the Courier Tribune is most certainly not Google or the New York Times. If a Web-surfing newshound hits any kind of wall at the Courier, there are a smorgasbord of local print and TV news sites to chose from . . . a mere point & click away . . . in a matter of a few seconds you can be somewhere else that doesn't take-your-name-for-purposes-of-suing-you or delete your every comment.
(IMHO, the TV stations are really kicking print's butt lately.)
Local newshounds can pass on Ray's nickel-plated spoon and go for the silver scoop without paying a penny.
If you have any doubts about Dr. Mary's curbside analysis (after all she is just a "stupid" blogger), here's an interesting 2008 article from the American Journalism Review about just this very issue (And LOOK Ray!!! . . . I could read and link it for free!).
Bottom line: A newspaper's online survival these days (not to mention Web advertising rates) are determined by TRUST and TRAFFIC.
Trust requires journalistic credibility and a history of integrity amongst the locals buying the print subscriptions and the ads (because that's where the money is still made). I've been told that, as is the case with most newspapers, print circulation at the Courier is way down. The smart people in Asheboro don't trust this newspaper anymore to tell them the truth - and they're tired of paying for the privilege of reading "the right people's" press releases.
Over last fifteen to twenty years (under David Renfro's "leadership"), our small-town paper has gotten too big for its britches . . . certainly much too free and easy (not-to-mention, painfully transparent) with the big-fish-little-pond garbage. I've lost count of the stories I've heard ordinary people tell . . . about taking the Courier a news tip or press release about a local event or activity, and getting the very cold shoulder in terms of coverage. And these people don't forget.
With this latest move, good ole Ray Criscoe continues to ignore the reasons many of us in Asheboro cancelled our print subscriptions long ago.
His brand of exclusivity is not inclusive.
In my case in particular, he'd rather scarf down the fancy-finger-foods at hospital Dine-Arounds, than tell a story that might not be so ugly now if it had been treated/covered fairly twelve years ago.
(Of course, as horribly as Ray and his old boss treated me/my family, at least I didn't get the N&R Ethan Fiensilver treatment. Buzz Armfield keeps promising to introduce me to Jack Perdue's widow . . . and I would be honored to meet her/swap war stories.)
Online newspaper traffic is spurred by timely stories with good/accurate information . . . investigative pieces with a local bent . . . and/or scandal & controversy.
In short, people want the newspaper to be a newspaper . . . to speak truth to power as opposed to crawling up power's recto-sigmoid colon and eating the ordurbs that are left for them there.
Believe me when I say that I'm very sorry the Courier Tribune is sadly lacking in all of these categories. And Ray's plan to move the existing chess pieces around to cover the gaping holes in the board that he and his reporters' practiced, bought-&-paid-for indifference have allowed good people to fall through is simply not going to work.
Indeed, it will likely hasten the newspaper's demise.
And in this case, I would shed no tears.
In short, Ray Criscoe faces a dilemma that other local newspaper Editors have bemoaned: People generally expect online content to be mostly free. How is a professional supposed to make a living?
And I love it because good ole Ray is finally finding out what it's like to be a primary care physician in Obama's . . . and Bob Morrison's . . . America.
Prior to Ray's latest announcement, my Mother and I actually discussed me registering her name with the paper and accessing its content through her password. We both wondered if Ray really had the balls to treat the woman who taught his offspring to read as badly as he had treated hers.
With that question in mind, I posed a question relevant to the progressive notion of "net neutrality" to the Courier's new publisher, Diane Winnemuller in an e-mail sent this morning:
Ms. Winnemuller,
I'm very curious.
If I pay for an online subscription and the privilege of reading/commenting, will your Editor still ban me for telling the truth?
Hold on tight, fair citizens of
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