Under Robin Saul: The News & Relic

News & Record wesbsite latest headlines May 7th, 2012

GREENSBORO, NC -- Last year I wrote that the News & Record publisher Robin Saul should retire because of the steady decline of the local daily under his leadership. Now others are speaking out on his deficiencies, even calling for him to be fired. The straw that broke the camel's back was Saul's behind-the-scenes maneuvering to quash an editorial on Amendment One.

Andy Brod called Saul's actions "disgraceful" and "galling."

Ed Cone says Saul, "has been a disaster for the N&R, and thus for Greensboro."

Lex Alexander wrote, in Fire Robin Saul, "We now have incontrovertible evidence that the man running the News & Record is a liar, a coward, a menace to the human resources he is paid to steward and a man who believes his readers are idiots."

As I noted last year, since taking the helm in 2005:

• Saul has been unable to shepherd the News & Record's online presence in a direction that advantageously leverages the legacy enterprise into a dynamic modern endeavor. Indeed, the News & Record's website has become the worst among media organizations in this market, an incredible accomplishment considering.
• Saul has been unable to keep the reporting standards at a level befitting the N&R's previous reputation, the community it purports to serve or the few superior professionals remaining at the N&R.
• Print circulation has suffered a monumental decline (Sundays are  down 22%, weekdays are down 40%).

News & Record circulation since Robin Saul became publisher.

Saul's newspaper background is in circulation—loading docks, trucks, paper in the driveway—which he directed at a newspaper less than a third of the size of the News & Record before being appointed to the position of publisher here. (Update: A commenter advises that Saul rose to the position of publisher at the Carrol County Times.)

Saul is not a news guy. He's not a tech guy. Either would be better to run the local paper. Any publisher would have to work hard to get and stay up to speed on all three areas—print, tech, news—but in Saul's case, he has exhibited neither the inclination nor the ability to strengthen his weak areas—and he has had seven years to try.

A publisher could possibly get around his personal shortcomings or lack of curiosity by hiring experts and deftly directing resources, but Saul has failed there too, hiring a salesperson to head the "interactive" department and stove-piping the various departments so that they are so vertical, so insular, so archaic that even the simplest of cross-discipline tasks are impossible.

A quick example: nobody has seen it as their responsibility—or nobody has the minimal skill necessary—to take the 30 seconds it would require to remove Ed Cone, Charles Davenport, Jr. and David Noer from the list of columnist displayed on the front page of the website's opinion section.  These guys no longer write columns for the N&R, Ed and Charles having stopped more than a year ago.

Screenshot, May 7, 2012

This is not some obscure and forgotten remnant, this is the current main page of the online opinion section.

Another quick example, the current title for the News & Record's RSS feed for stories on the topic of government is "News & Record 2009 Elections Coverage RSS."

I mean, come on. It's as if nobody is paying attention or nobody knows how to fix the simplest of things; or nobody cares.

The News & record has become an enterprise of declining print circulation and diminishing credibility with a website in last place in the market. Its archaic organizational structure keeps it from effectively leveraging its remaining value into new media, much less developing new entrepreneurial opportunities.

That's good news for anybody who might be contemplating a lean and modern local news organization. It wouldn't take much to drive a stake through the N&R zombie and fill the void. Unless and until that happens however, the News & Record is still the hometown paper and we deserve better than we've got from Robin Saul.