THE HERALD-SUN (DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA)

'''The Herald-Sun''' is a daily newspaper in Durham, North Carolina, published by the Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky.

Contents

History

Early history

Layoffs

Paxton Media Group buyout

More layoffs

Decline in content, readership

Duke lacrosse attorney's criticism

Web site

Circulation

External links

References

History

''The Herald-Sun'' began publication on 1 January, 1991 as the result of a merger of ''The Durham Morning Herald'' and ''The Durham Sun''.^[4]
''The Herald-Sun'' and ''The Durham Morning Herald'' before it were owned and operated by the Rollins Family, which had been in management positions since 1895. Edward Tyler Rollins Jr., former owner, board chairman and publisher of ''The Herald-Sun'', died 5 November, 2006, just shy of two years after selling to Paxton Media Group.

Early history

''The Durham Morning Herald'' began publication in 1893, as a result of the reorganization of ''The Durham Globe'' from a daily to a weekly paper. Four former employees of the downsized ''Globe'', itself an outgrowth of the merger of Durham's first daily, ''The Tobacco Plant'' and ''The Durham Daily Recorder'', organized a competitor newspaper, '''The Globe Herald''', which would soon be renamed ''The Morning Herald''.^[5]
In 1929, the Durham Morning Herald Company acquired ''The Durham Sun'', an evening daily that had been in publication in one form or another since 1889.^[6]

Layoffs

Not long after the 1991 merger of the Durham Herald Co.'s two daily papers to form ''The Herald-Sun'', numerous employees from the news staff were dismissed. Many newsroom employees felt insulted by publisher Rick Kaspar's arriving at work that week driving a new Corvette; at least one expressed their displeasure by gouging the car's paint on the way out the door.

Paxton Media Group buyout

On 3 December, 2004, 'Herald-Sun Newspapers', the parent company of ''The Herald Sun'' and ''The Chapel Hill Herald'' announced that the Paxton Media Group had purchased the company from the locally based Rollins family. The sum paid by Paxton was not publicly announced (the two companies are both privately held), but sources placed it at about $124 million. Pre-sale appraisals of the company had placed its value at roughly $70 million.^[7]

More layoffs

Upon assumption of operations, on 3 January, 2005 Paxton's executives fired 81 of the newspaper's 350 employees, including president and publisher David Hughey longtime executive editor and vice-president, Bill Hawkins, longtime columnist Jim Wise, longtime sports writer and Atlantic Coast Conference authority Al Featherston and editorial cartoonist John Cole, who eight months earlier had taken first place in the 22nd annual John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition.^[8][9] Also among those let go was former Managing Editor Jon Ham, who had been moved out of the company's newsroom to create a one-person "digital publishing" department with little authority. Ham had been seen as a key player in earlier layoffs and many in the newsroom noted the irony. The firings were unexpected and abrupt, many employees being told they were fired upon returning from lunch, and then were escorted to the parking lot.^[10] The new editor, Bob Ashley said the job cuts were made because of financial reasons He explained that fired employees were escorted from the building immediately due to security concerns and on the advice of the company's lawyers. ^[11]

Decline in content, readership

The dramatic staff reduction was followed by a decline in daily page counts and, eventually, subscribers, a trend largely attributed to the declining quality of reporting, as many stories, columns and editorials are provided by wire and syndication services, taking the place of longtime local contributors, many of whom were the recipients of national honors.^[8] Paxton has defended the shift in content by emphasizing an increase in the paper's focus on stories within the Durham city limits, however, some in the community feel that ''The Herald-Sun's coverage of Durham is more lackluster than ever.^[13]

Duke lacrosse attorney's criticism

Jim Cooney, Reade Seligmann's lawyer in the Duke lacrosse case, called out ''The Herald-Sun'' in a press conference that was televised live on many national news networks on April 11, 2007.^[14] Saying that ''The Herald-Sun'' is one of the major "cowards" of the case, Cooney stated that the ''The Herald-Sun'' empowered Nifong to go forward with a weak case by not "bother[ing] to stand up and demand proper processes [and] the presumption of innocence," while "publishing what they knew were lies, and repeating them."^[15] ''The Herald-Sun'' also came under fire for have "not written a single editorial critical of the way in which Mike Nifong proceeded" at the time the North Carolina Attorney General declared the defendants "innocent."^[15] This occurred despite the fact that the North Carolina State Bar had filed two rounds of ethics charges against him, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys demanded that Nifong remove himself from the case, and many other news organizations demanded that the district attorney step down.^{[17][18][19][20][21]}

Web site

''The Herald-Sun's'' website was first launched in 1995 as a basic online information site, with relatively little dynamic content from the print edition of the newspaper. Despite the basic offerings, the site won a Newspaper Association of America Digital Edge Award for its online guide to local and national candidates during the 1996 election.^[22]
On 7 November, 2000, heraldsun.com was relaunched as a dynamic news site with content drawn directly from the print edition, wire services, as well as updates and features on local news stories during the course of the day. As of June 2003, the site was receiving more than 3 million page views per month and had been honored more than seven times for its design and innovation.^[23]
A redesign of the site, in early 2007, made an effort to de-emphasize the AP-wire feed headlines, which are no longer placed at the top of the page. The redesign also introduced compulsory, free, registration for users wishing to read any article, including the AP-wire feeds. At this point the company finally implemented widespread Web training, which it failed to do under its previous ownership, and the site not only continues to be updated throughout the day, the number of postings has grown dramatically as more editors are able to work with the site.

Circulation

''The Herald-Sun's'' geographic emphasis is on the western counties of the Research Triangle area of North Carolina that surround the City of Durham and the Town of Chapel Hill, including Durham County, Orange County, Person County, Granville County and Chatham County.

	Weekday	Saturday	Sunday
2003 [24]	50,612		56,363
2004 [25]	49,800	53,500	54,200
2005 [26]	42,298	39,835	45,793
2006	39,000	34,000	41,000

External links

★ Official Site

References

1. http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1298978 Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
2. http://www.lifeontheridge.com/blog/?p=1929 Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
3. http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/ncnp/durha.htm Retrieved 1 June, 2007.
4. http://www.lib.duke.edu/reference/subjects/durham.htm Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
5. http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2007/06/100-block-e-main-north-eastern-half.html Retrieved on 1 June, 2007.
6. http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2007/02/herald-sun-buildings.html Retrieved 1 June, 2007.
7. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A23460 Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
8. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A27101 Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
9. http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/114802/ Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
10. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A23468 Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
11. http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/115144/ Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
12. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A27101 Retrieved on 26 December, 2006.
13. http://www.bullcityrising.com/2007/04/why_we_still_ne.html Retrieved 1 June, 2007.
14. Lacrosse Attorney: Blame Durham Paper. ''The Raleigh Chronicle.'' 12 April 2007.
15. Duke Lacrosse Press Conference. ''CNN.'' 11 April 2007.
16. Duke Lacrosse Press Conference. ''CNN.'' 11 April 2007.
17. Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out. ''60 Minutes.'' 15 Oct 2006.
18. Lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case. ''The News & Observer''. 6 August 2006.
19. Nifong's move. ''The News & Observer.'' 23 December 2006.
20. Investigate the investigation. ''The Charlotte Observer.'' 23 December 2006.
21. The prosecutor is guilty. ''The Star-Ledger.'' 30 December 2006.
22. http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2003/06-03/ot/06-03_websiteprofile.htm Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
23. http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2003/06-03/ot/06-03_websiteprofile.htm Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
24. http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2003/06-03/ot/06-03_websiteprofile.htm Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
25. Calculated from percentage of decline in 2005 numbers, as reported by ''The Independent Weekly', "Inside ''The Herald-Sun''", 18 January, 2006.
26. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A27101