Tracking “N&O” Creep

On Monday, The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer announced they were cutting jobs and saving money by consolidating, among other things, sports coverage. Here's a quick byline count of the Tue, Wed, and Thu Observer Sports fronts:

Observer writers: 6 bylines

N&O writers: 4 bylines

Wire service stories: 2 

For a good story on the cuts from a Raleigh perspective, read this. From the piece, it's apparent that Observer sports editor Mike Persinger (and my long-ago internship supervisor) will run a combined sports department. The N&O sports editor was laid off. And N&O editor-in-chief John Drescher (and the man who hired me as an Obs intern, when he was the metro editor) has some revealing, forthright quotes.