THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606290017
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: 88 lines
Two Sundays ago, Virginian-Pilot reader and critic Warren Rubin stopped for a cup of coffee at McDonald's in Elizabeth City. While there, he picked up a newspaper.
Rubin, who lives in Virginia Beach, said he was really impressed by the writing and thought to himself, ``Wish our local paper was this good.''
Then he looked at the name of the Elizabeth City paper: The Virginian-Pilot. Well, whaddya know!
On The Pilot's front page, right under the newspaper's name, a small line says, ``Serving Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina.'' But most readers, like Rubin, probably don't notice it.
Even those of us at the newspaper see relatively few of the 16,000 Pilot papers that go to Elizabeth City and the Outer Banks each day.
So last weekend, on a jaunt to Nags Head, I stopped by The Pilot's branch office there and chatted with general manager Ronald L. Speer, one of the first editors I met when I began at the afternoon Ledger-Star 16 years ago in Norfolk.
Nags Head - not a bad spot for a guy who was born in Nebraska and didn't see the ocean until he was 18. Today, Speer has a 24-foot sloop, the Wind Gypsy, and heads up a bureau of about 15 full-timers, including six reporters, a photographer and an advertising staff. Some, like veteran reporter Mason Peters, are based at the smaller Elizabeth City bureau.
That's a mini-staff, compared to the rest of the newspaper, but it's put other writing teams to the blush. In a recent newsroom productivity survey, the North Carolina reporters ranked first in daily output per writer. Must be something in the water - or maybe the mosquitoes keep 'em hopping!
The North Carolina edition is nearly identical to the papers that go to Norfolk, Virginia Beach and other local cities, though N.C. deadlines are earlier, so sports reports are not as complete. And the words ``North Carolina Edition'' are prominent on the front page.
But the big difference is that, in place of the MetroNews section, there's a North Carolina section. This is filled, seven days a week, by the local staff and by wire reports. Speer tries to have the section front all or mostly staff written. Stories and photos are transmitted by computer to the Norfolk office for layout and copy editing.
In addition, North Carolina readers get the Coast section each Sunday - it's the equivalent of, say, the Norfolk Compass or the Virginia Beach Beacon. But the Coast is also distributed free in the summer and has a peak circulation of 40,000. Today they're celebrating the section's 10th anniversary with a cover story - by editor/columnist Speer - devoted to a decade of looking back.
``We think it's a pretty good little magazine,'' said Speer. Well, of course he thinks so, but the section does have a lot of information on where to eat, what to do, and so forth.
You don't really have to go to Nags Head or Elizabeth City to read about northeastern North Carolina. There's always plenty in The Pilot about Lake Gaston and the pipeline squabble. And local readers have been following the Little Rascals Day Care scandal since 1992.
But you'll see a variety of stories by North Carolina staffers on A1 and the Metro section. Last Monday, Paul South wrote about a reunion on Roanoke Island to celebrate a settlement of freed slaves. And on June 15, Lane DeGregory had a front-page story about a do-it-yourself clam farm in Hatteras Village. Both stories had photos by Drew Wilson, who also works out of the Nags Head office.
On the day that I stopped by to say hello, everyone was out on breaking stories, among them a small fire at a local hotel. Two guests, who happened to be vacationing firefighters, helped put it out.
Wilson's photo of the incident ran on the North Carolina section front the next day, but his shots of birds, surfers and fishermen are what I really enjoy. Too bad more of them don't make the Metro edition.
Another interesting feature of the North Carolina section is the daily-fishing report by Damon Tatem, who has owned and run a local bait shop for 25 years. Plans are to add that column to Pilot Online sometime in July.
Carolina readers also get their own zoned copy of the green sheet, and I usually hear from them when we're not quick enough at updating channel changes in Currituck or when someone on the Virginia Beach-North Carolina border gets the wrong edition.
But luckily for me, Ron Speer often serves as his own public editor. Readers call him or just walk into his office to gripe, schmooze or praise. That's life in Nags Head.
Several Smithfield readers called to say they're sorry The Pilot has closed its Smithfield office and eliminated The Citizen. ``It was like a good friend,'' said Mary Ann Edwards.
The community news section debuted Oct. 5, 1989, and had its final edition Wednesday, including a farewell column by Linda McNatt. She will do her reporting out of the Suffolk office.
Suffolk editor John Pruitt asked me to remind Smithfield readers that he wants to keep hearing from them; his office can be reached at 238-3459. MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net by CNB