Talent drives unconventional approach to N&O's Duke coverage

It seems that within large newspaper chains, many big decisions are made with an eye on the bottom line and barely a thought about what it will mean for the quality of the product. There appeared to be another such case in the Triangle. 

What if you were told that largest area newspaper covering a national men's college basketball power did so with a part-time writer? You wouldn't believe it.

The bad news for Raleigh News & Observer readers is that it's true.

Daly

The same McClatchy chain that took away Raleigh's copy desk and shifted all desk work to a regional desk in Charlotte made another curious move. Since late November, the Duke men's basketball beat writer for the N&O has been Jack Daly, who is now a part-time employee at the newspaper.

The first piece of good news? Daly is a good choice as a beat writer. He distinguished himself as the UNC beat writer for the The Herald-Sun in Durham before leaving to go to graduate school.

Tim Crothers is a former senior writer at Sports Illustrated
and wrote a biography about UNC women's soccer
coaching legend Anson Dorrance.

The second piece of good news? The N&O also is adding former Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Crothers, also as a part-time writer. N&O Executive Editor John Drescher said Friday that Daly and Crothers will focus on Duke but also get other ACC assignments.

Drescher said the fact that Duke is covered by part-time writers shouldn't be an issue.

"I don't think our readers care about hours a reporter is budgeted to work; I think they care about the quality of our coverage," he said in emailed comments, admitting that this is a new approach.

"This is a different beat structure than we've had in the past, but we ought to experiment," Drescher said. "We feel good about having Jack and Tim as part of the team."

When this season began, Ken Tysiac covered Duke's men's basketball. He left the beat and the newspaper after the Blue Devils' Nov. 18 victory over Davidson to become a senior editor at the Journal of Accountancy.

The N&O didn't cover Duke's run to the Maui Classic title, then sent Charlotte Observer sportswriter Rick Bonnell to the Blue Devils' blowout loss at Ohio State. The N&O then sent Carolina Hurricanes beat writer Chip Alexander to New York to cover Duke's win over Washington on his way to covering the Canes' game at Toronto.

Since then, the N&O's beat writer has been Daly. Until his story on Duke's loss Wednesday night at Temple, he was listed as a correspondent. For that story, the correspondent tag was replaced with what usually is under the name of a full-time writer: his N&O email address.

Drescher

Why did the N&O not hire a full-time Duke beat writer? It seems logical to guess that this was another heavy-handed financial move made by McClatchy brass. But Drescher said that this isn't the case.

"McClatchy hasn't forced me to do anything," he said. "I have a budget and I have to stay within it. My budget hasn't changed recently.

"Ken was a Charlotte Observer employee when he wrote for both papers," Drescher said. "When he departed, Gary Schwab (senior sports editor for both papers), Rick Thames (editor of The Observer) and I decided this was the best solution."

This is the second change in a big beat in a short time for the N&O.

Pickeral

When Robbi Pickeral left the N&O's UNC beat to blog for ESPN.com in the fall, the N&O did hire a full-time replacement. It was fortunate to be able to lure Andrew Carter, who had been the Miami Dolphins beat writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

For a Carolina fan like myself, it's been a 2-for-1 deal. Carter has done a good job and I also have enjoyed Pickeral's coverage on ESPN.com. Down the road, Harold Gutmann has stepped in as The Herald-Sun's beat writer after Briana Gorman left for Australia and also had done a good job.

Carter

"We lost a lot with Robbi Pickeral and Ken Tysiac left," Drescher said. "They were excellent. But we've added some excellent people. UNC beat reporter Andrew Carter is off to a good start and Jack and Tim are going to do well."

To the N&O's credit, it sent Daly to Philadelphia for Duke's loss to Temple while The Herald-Sun ran a story from The Associated Press.

Will the N&O's approach to covering Duke, which certainly comes with challenges, work?

"I believe we will have strong coverage of Duke and the ACC," Drescher said. "That's what our readers want and that's what we're going to give them. I don't think readers care about the inner workings of our newsroom budget. I think they care about coverage. That's what we are focused on."

The move to a regional desk, in which multiple newspapers are produced by one desk, has created issues for N&O readers. They initially included the lack of coverage of Triangle-area non-revenue sports, but those problems were ironed out.

Some of the errors, which I think are related to an overworked desk, have been chronicled by an anonymously run website called N&Oops. While I have made contributions, it's not my site and I have no idea who is behind it. Andy Bechtel did ask in this Q&A on his blog in December.

I don't see similar issues with this latest move.

The approach to covering Duke is unconventional. But given the talent that the N&O has brought in to execute it, it should give readers good coverage of the Blue Devils.

As a Carolina fan, of course, I hope that that coverage ends in mid-March.