Meeting

Report

 
RICK THAMES
The Charlotte Observer
by Henry Bostic
 
Charlotte Rotarians met Rick Thames, the new editor of The Charlotte Observer, on Tuesday, and they found he was no stranger.
 
A native North Carolinian, Thames worked at The Observer in a variety of editorial capacities including assistant managing editor from 1988 to 1997. While editor of The Wichita (KS) Eagle, Thames was a Rotarian.
 
The Rotary Club and The Observer “share common ground,” he said. Rotarians are “actively engaged in your community. You are doing good things for the community.” He called the Rotary Four Way Test an excellent guide to civic duty.
The Observer, too, seeks to “make a difference in the community.” We want to be a “constructive player,” the Pfeiffer graduate said. Yes, we deliver difficult news and we point to problems, he said, but we do it “constructively” so that the community is “stronger in the end.”
Thames outlined three ways The Observer will address the needs of the community and serve it better in the coming years.
 
First, he said, The Observer will concentrate on “news that is truly helpful in life.” How things work or don’t work. How government spends tax monies. He revealed his sense of humor when he noted that the paper had recently done stories on how HOV lanes are supposed to work. “We may have to do that story again,” he said with a chuckle.
Second, under his editorship, The Observer will concentrate more resources in investigative journalism. Thames noted that this is a role that sets newspapers apart from other media because they can afford to invest six months studying an issue in detail. He called it “an important role, one you expect from us.”
 
Thames said newspapers are the “court of last resort” under the First Amendment “when all else has failed.” He cited the three-day series on North Carolina’s group homes for children that ended yesterday as an example. The homes serve some 4,000 children, many mentally ill, and since 2000, four have died while living in the homes, most of which are operated by entrepreneurs with an eye toward quick profits and little background in dealing with mentally challenged youth. The Observer series pointed out serious problems with many homes because of the lack of proper state oversight. “The state made the situation worse. It threw good money, almost $160 million dollars, at bad homes. It’s no secret. Authorities didn’t act.”
 
Thames, the ninth editor in the 118-year history of the Carolinas most widely circulated newspaper, also noted that the recent community town meeting of children’s issues was the result of Observer stories and concerns raised about the general health of children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Finally, the Laurinburg native who grew up in Aberdeen and Rockingham said he wants The Observer to become a “meeting place” where people of different backgrounds get to know each other.
 
He noted that Charlotte is a much different city than when he was here in the 80s and 90s. It is “much less a city of the South and much more a city of the world.” One-fourth of the people living in Mecklenburg County moved here in the past five years. We need to understand “the values that motivate us,” he said.
  
Thames said The Observer can be a catalyst for “building better relations in the community.” Responding to a question regarding the future of newspapers in a world on 24-hour television news and the internet, Thames sense of humor appeared once again, when he said that these were not the first new media expected to sound the death knell for newspapers. Newspapers weren’t expected to survive radio and television either, he noted. He recalled an incident several years ago when he and other newspaper executives were being “treated as quaint” and “lectured to by 25-year-old dotcom millionaires” at the Excite website. “Where is Excite today?” he asked. “Gone!”
 
The Observer coverage area spans 40 counties from the mountains to the coast. Daily circulation is more than 230,000 and Sunday circulation tops 280,000. Thames pointed out that the paper was one of the few major papers in the country with circulation growth in the last quarter. Thames is in charge of the 260 employees who put out The Observer’s news product. The editor of the editorial pages now reports to Publisher Peter Ridder, who also attended the meeting.
 
Head Table:
Kelly Pharr, Graz Graziano, Catherine Browning, Gayle Smith, Harriman Jett, Keith Nowokunski; Invocation: Ken Poe
    
Visitors and Guests:
George Robinette; Health & Happiness: Leland Park; Song: Thomas Moore

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MARK THE DATE The Club will celebrate Rotary International’s 100th Anniversary on Wednesday, February 23, 2005, with a dinner (6:30 pm) at Charlotte Country Club. Invitations will be mailed next week. (NOTE: the Club will not meet on that Tuesday.)

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