What we ask of others

When your business is struggling, it's no fun being the subject of the story. Yet we've reported extensively on our financial problems during the last year.

We did this for two reasons. First, we assume that if you're reading The N&O, you have some interest in the paper. You might want to know about changes.

Second, if we are going to ask other businesses, government agencies and nonprofits to talk about their problems, we ought to be willing to talk about ours.

We have. In the past nine months, we've published a half dozen stories about our buyouts, layoffs and budget cuts. Like many businesses, we've been hit hard by the recession. Most of our revenue comes from advertising, and many of our advertisers are hurting.

We might have written too much about our problems. But we wanted to set a standard for leaders in business and government. No executive, in responding to a request from The N&O, can claim that we have not been willing to talk about our problems and share information about our business.

Also, Publisher Orage Quarles III and I have been available to reporters from other news outlets.

Compare our approach to that of one of our competitors, Capitol Broadcasting Co., which owns WRAL-TV. TV stations are being hit by the same decline in advertising as we are. Capitol executives met with employees this week to discuss cost cutting. When The N&O's Jonathan Cox cornered Jim Goodmon, Capitol's owner and CEO, in a parking lot, Goodmon declined to talk.

Executives in the Triangle take note: Goodmon will send a reporter to talk to you about your business -- but he won't talk about his. And he operates on the public airwaves. He has more of an obligation than most to discuss his company's finances.

After we published a story about WRAL's problems, Goodmon gave an interview to wral.com. But WRAL-TV still has not aired a story about itself.

I reminded Goodmon that Quarles talked with a WRAL reporter Monday but that Goodmon wouldn't talk with us. "My view is this is a private company and that's our business," he said Friday. He said he would talk with us soon about industry trends but not give specifics about Capitol.

Capitol Broadcasting is a fine company. Goodmon is a talented and public-spirited businessman, which is why we named him our 2003 Tar Heel of the Year. But he's wrong on this issue. If you are going to report on the business community, you have to be willing to report on yourself -- and take questions from others.

Cancer fund shoot-out

We couldn't let March pass without holding our annual free-throw shooting contest on a 7-foot-goal in the newsroom.

This year, we invited guests to shoot: Tom O'Brien, football coach at N.C. State; Steve Vacendak, former Duke hoops star and executive director of the environmental education organization N.C. Beautiful; Elizabeth Lancaster, who played soccer and lacrosse at UNC-Chapel Hill and works for the Capital Area Soccer League; and Sterling Freeman, a former Davidson basketball player who leads the Durham-based Wildacres Leadership Initiative.

N&O staffers paid $2 to shoot three free throws against a guest. We raised $400 for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

Thanks to our guests, whose presence and good humor helped raise money for a good cause and made it a special day for us.