Chapel Hill Herald

The state of the local media is a subject of much concern here on OP, and there have been some very interesting shifts in recent weeks. The most exciting change is the announcement by the Carrboro Citizen that they will be expanding to cover Chapel Hill and increasing circulation by 20%. (See this OP post by CC editor Kirk Ross last fall soliciting our feedback on the expansion.) They have hired Margot Carmichael Lester who is an experienced reporter and a local native. It is really gratifying to see this locally-owned paper succeed. I think it's good for the entire community.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group, which bought the Herald-Sun several years ago, is continuing the downward spiral of that paper. Recently, they yanked Chapel Hill Herald editor Neil Offen and swapped him out with Durham metro editor Dan Way.

Yesterday's Chapel Hill News is the last edition of that paper before tomorrow's election. Surveying the entire news section of the paper shows that the only mention of this is in the endorsement letters, the political advertisements, and two opinion columns on the presidential race. Apparently the journalists at the News just didn't think there was anything new to say about the local election. However, they did find time to interview folks in the street about the nonexistent hula-hoop "issue."