Newspaper industry

Charlotte Observer will cut paper not people

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Alan Gardner January 13, 2006 1 minute 0 comments

Good news for employees at the Charlotte Observer, their editor Rick Thames has decided to cut the number of pages in the paper rather than jobs.

“Given a choice of where to reduce costs, I?m going to do my best to keep the great staff that we have,” Thames said, citing myriad studies that show readers are interested in ?smartly crafted? newspapers, not thicker ones. Thames says the page reduction should save the paper about $1 million over the course of the year.

Sunday will thin down because it is the thickest edition, but Thames believes readers will spend more time with the slimmer, improved edition. Monday, which is ?already the most hurried day of the week,? also will shrink and will include more summaries, lists, and guides to help readers ?get in gear? for the coming week.

The Charlotte Observer is home to editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers.