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Good question. There is no "sweetheart deal" between The N&O and the Hurricanes, according to Marketing Vice President Felicia Gressette. The Hurricanes do buy advertising in The N&O, and The N&O has purchased rink-side signage in the RBC Center during the playoffs. Both are paying the same rate as other advertisers, she said. The N&O leases a skybox at the arena and has four season tickets in the stands, all at the going rate. (Disclosure here: The public editor has not been among the guests.)

The greater benefit to The N&O is in circulation numbers. The paper has been selling between 800 and 1,150 extra copies a day since the beginning of the playoffs, which at 50 cents a copy amounts to maybe $20,000 in additional revenue during that time.

The N&O does not disclose purchases by advertising clients.

Orage Quarles III, the publisher, says the additional circulation and advertising inflow probably doesn't offset the cost of newsprint, travel and other expenses associated with the coverage. "There are some things you do, and you don't worry about the bottom line," he said "Covering our sports teams who reach a certain level falls under that category. Our goal has always been to exceed our readers' expectations."

One reader definitely pleased by the coverage is Jim Rutherford, general manager of the Hurricanes: "I think it's been excellent, beyond what we would have expected," he told me. Rutherford said The N&O coverage has been more extensive than in all the other hockey towns he's visited during the playoffs.

When the subject of coverage is so joyous, that makes me a little uncomfortable. Has the paper gone too far? Yes, I would say so with the front-page coverage. A hockey team on a run is front-page news from time to time, but not half the time over an endless playoff season. I would put Friday's lead front-page headline -- "Woooooooooo!" -- in the over-exuberant category. Nay, boosterish.

(To be fair, the front-page coverage included critical articles on ticket prices and the draping of Capitol Square statues in Canes' garb.)

But the expanded coverage in Sports has been right on. The Sports folks have successfully struck the balance between insider hockey and hockey 101. The writing sparkles, especially the fresh, smart angles that lead hockey writer Luke DeCock manages to coax out of 60 minutes of white blur. The excellent still photography shows us what we missed on television. Yes! there is a puck out there.

As I've written before, sports is entertainment, not news. But it can be a portal that brings new readers to the more serious offerings of a newspaper. One mom told me that her children were reading the paper as she wrote her e-mail. That, I think, makes Johnson & Co.'s efforts gratifying.

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