Charlotte is losing journalists. Who steps up?
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Josh Stein, then North Carolina's attorney general, speaks to reporters during a press conference April 30, 2024 after four law enforcement officers were shot and killed in Charlotte. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Charlotte should brace for the impacts of losing eight journalists this week after McClatchy, the parent company of The Charlotte Observer, slashed a quarter of its newsroom to focus on what "subscribers value."
Why it matters: Charlotte — a growing city with rising stakes, from elections to government to schools — can expect lost taxpayer money and even less coverage of overlooked neighborhoods as newsrooms continue to shrink.
- "Research has suggested that the fewer journalists you have in a community, the less engagement you have in civics, everything from voting to philanthropy," says Marisa Porto of UNC's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The big picture: This turbulence in Charlotte's media landscape could be a sign for civic leaders to step up.
- "If we care about democracy in this country, we need to do something about this," Porto says. "We encourage and support every other business in this country and in the state. We give tax breaks for data centers."
- In New Jersey, the legislature funds the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. In California, a bill is advancing to give refundable tax credits to qualifying local newsrooms for hiring journalists.
Driving the news: On the same day management announced layoffs in the name of subscriber values, The Charlotte Observer team took home 34 North Carolina Press Association awards, including second place in general excellence.
- The layoffs included an editor, two investigative reporters, a photographer, and four reporters covering education, breaking news, growth and transportation, according to current and former Charlotte Observer employees.
- Companywide, McClatchy fired at least 90 people, per Poynter.
Zoom out: This comes after Charlotte magazine and Queen City Nerve both shuttered within a year of each other.
- When Queen City Nerve closed, Charlotte lost one of the few outlets that amplified Charlotte's arts and culture scene. The paper said its print pick-up rate was 93%. And its online engagement was strong, too. Still, it was financially floundering.
- When Charlotte magazine ceased publication, Charlotte lost one of the few outlets still producing long-form stories about the city. Its owner, Georgia-based Morris Communications, never explained the shutdown.
State of play: Sarah Stonbely, a researcher who's studied Charlotte's media landscape, attributes the recent newspaper firings to outlets "being beholden to private equity."
- "Private equity ownership of local news has been an issue for at least a decade," Stonbely says. "They basically buy outlets and bleed them dry, then sell them for parts."
- McClatchy is owned by New Jersey-based investment firm Chatham Asset Management.
Threat level: The loss of investigative roles is particularly concerning, Stonbely says.
- Investigative reporting takes significant money, time and extensive source-building, churning out less revenue-generating content in hopes of breaking one impactful story.
- And fewer journalists means fewer areas covered, and the city already had gaps in coverage. Roughly half of Charlotte's census tracts are hardly covered in news articles, a Columbia Journalism School paper co-authored by Stonbely found.
- When those least-covered tracts were mentioned in stories, more than half of the time, it was about crime.
The other side: Charlotte still has a relatively robust media scene. Since 2000, 20 local news outlets have formed, including donor-supported The Charlotte Optimist and the independently owned Charlotte Ledger, according to the Columbia Journalism School report.
By the numbers: Mecklenburg County has 9.07 local journalists for every 100,000 people, according to the Local Journalist Index from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News.
- That's above the U.S. average of 7.8.
- Still, nationally, the number of local journalists has fallen 81% since 2002, when there were about 40 per 100,000.
The bottom line: When journalists lose their jobs, Charlotte loses, too.