Appalachian State and the Charlotte Observer

[SoCon48]

Got up early this morning to go to Mickey Dees for hotcakes/sausage and to eagerly read what the rag Charlotte Observer said about the new AD in Boone.
After a "standing room only" press conference yesterday in Boone announcing Cobb as the new AD, the Disturber gave him one sentence on the last page.
Devoted a half a column on the front page railing about UNC-C not having one of their stained glass lamps in some Charlotte fish camp. (and hell it didn't even have a press conference). :eek:
Maybe his first job is to get the Disturber to give App a bit of coverage. He should be able to do that since he convinced the powers that be that returning to Boone was fulfilling his childhood dream (although he chose to play football at NC State).

The guy has a great bio even though this is his first stint at AD and was passed over by the rival Catamounts.

The Charlotte Observer has declined in circulation by 8% over the period that it's area has had a large growth in population.
Figures.

it will be interesting to see how the WSJ, Greensboro, Raleigh papers, etc covered the announcement. If it was as slack, then the standing room only press conference must have been filled with writers who wanted to ride up to Boone to see Tweetsie yesterday :D .
We'll see.

[SoCon48]

So as not to sound too negative, the WSJ does a tremendous job of covering ASU. Assigns a reporter for the season and every game (Tommy Bowman). CO uses a stringer sometimes. No pictures. Sometimes a wire report. Sometimes nothing.
Also, the Watauga Democrat(n.a.) does a fantastic job for a newpaper its size and a one member sports department (Steve Behr).

[GannonFan]

Not being from North Carolina, wouldn't it be odd for a Charlotte newspaper to have extensive coverage of Appalachian St? I thought Charlotte was something like 2 hours (driving) away from Boone, and Charlotte is much closer to the SC state line whereas Boone is close to Virginia and Tennessee. From a UD perspective, this is like expecting a lot of Blue Hen coverage in the Baltimore Sun, and heck, Baltimore is only an hour away from UD (note, I know of very little Blue Hen coverage in the Baltimore papers).

Oh, and on a side note, there was an article in the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) the other day about almost all newspaper circulation numbers being down over the past year (even the ubiquitous USA Today). Something called the "internet" and "tv" I think are being labelled as the causes for this decline. They didn't mention scant coverage of Appalachian St sports but in all honesty, I didn't really read that far into it. ;)

[89Hen]

Not being from North Carolina, wouldn't it be odd for a Charlotte newspaper to have extensive coverage of Appalachian St? I thought Charlotte was something like 2 hours (driving) away from Boone, and Charlotte is much closer to the SC state line whereas Boone is close to Virginia and Tennessee. From a UD perspective, this is like expecting a lot of Blue Hen coverage in the Baltimore Sun, and heck, Baltimore is only an hour away from UD (note, I know of very little Blue Hen coverage in the Baltimore papers).
I'm not sure that's a fair analogy GF. Charlotte is still in NC and papers seem to like to stick to state lines. As far as I know, Charlotte is the closest major city so it wouldn't be odd for them to carry AppSt news, especially since they don't have a DI of their own. Unfortunately, it's the nature of what is big news to different regions. I'm sure NASCAR has full color pull out sections in the Observer. When I was in Columbia, SC the big stories were college baseball this time of year. We're very spoiled in DE with the NJ (at least the last couple years).

[GannonFan]

I don't know about the state line things - both Philly papers have a fair amount of articles about New Jersey or Delaware, and the Inquirer even has special neighborhood sections for both of those areas. It may not be the best UD coverage in the world, but often the write-up is a bit lenghty and they often have a picture. I would imagine that in Charlotte, besides Nascar, there's always the larger colleges (I think Wake is closer to Charlotte than Boone) plus the state university in Chapel Hill - a bit farther but being the state university I'm sure that is newsworthy. I just think Boone is a bit far from Charlotte to think it would be very newsworthy.

[SoCon48]

Winston-Salem Journal carries extensive coverage of ASU (assigned reporter, constant coverage, etc). Almost the same distance to W-Salem as to Charlotte. Charlotte is 84 miles from Boone. Winston-Salem is 86.

So that's not it.

ASU has a radio station in Charlotte which carries ASU games. Tens of thousands of alumni (in fact Charlotte is ASU's largest alumni base). Boone has home delivery in Boone for the Charlotte Observer.

Too, the Charlotte Observer once covered ASU football extensively.

FWIW. The Raleigh News and Observer (193 miles away) carried an article, the Winston-Salem Journal, and even the Washington Times (294 miles)...among others.

[Josh]

David Coulson writes the game reports etc. for the Observer when they decide they want one.

I don't see his name in there at this time of the year and they really should have him do articles. If I am missiing them tell me so I can read them but they should have him do an article on the new AD.

By the way. I am very happy with this pick. Much better than LR. This guy is more worthy of this. Thanks to her for what she did though.

I would also like to say thanks to the football staff and they will be missed after the season...

[dungeonjoe]

I had to do some serious thinking about my subscription renewal to the Observer. Their college coverage stinks if you are anyone other than ACC. Wofford is about the same distance as Boone and gets mentioned even less than APP; Winthrop (division II here in Rock Hill) got a mention when the got to the NCAA basketball playoffs.

Because of my son, who loves pro football more than Peter loved the Lord, I re-newed (great Pro coverage with the Panthers). But I get most of my football news from the internet versions of the paper and I-AA.org!!! :)

[SoCon48]

I didn't have to give it any serious thought...I just didn't renew. When I found out I could get the WSJ by mail the same day (except Sunday), it was a no-brainer. Panther coverage means so little to me.

Got to admit, the C Observer has the best Wal-Mart, Lowes, Eckerds, and K-Mart inserts of any paper around.