Should We Wish for the News and Record What It Wished for the Local Health Care Industry?

John Hammer reports in the Rhino Times that, with the loss of its managing editor and publisher positions, the Greensboro News and  Record is in the process of being combined with its sister publication, the Winston-Salem Journal. (Or should I say its parent publication?)

Corporate mergers sometimes can be quite disruptive and traumatic for employees. And Hammer seems to be suggesting that the two papers are in the process of being merged gradually.

Should this outcome be wished upon the Greensboro News and Record?

We might glean some insight from the position taken by the newspaper over twenty years ago when Cone Hospital merged with Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro. These used to be two independent entities in competition with each other. Now, they are part of the same health care system; and there is no other full service hospital competing against them in Greensboro.

Interestingly, as that merger took place, the Greensboro News and Record editorialized in favor. It did not matter that competition was being eliminated. This made the merger potentially problematic for patients, families and payers. It also created a captive situation for many employees in the health care industry locally because many had no alternative workplaces to consider if they wished to work in Greensboro.

The local newspaper editorialized in favor of the hospital merger in spite of all of the above circumstances. That is, of course, what the local establishment wanted to happen at that time; and the paper acquiesced. The News and Record also has editorialized in favor of socialized medicine which is even further destructive of the health care industry.

Given the manner in which the local paper has handled its responsibilities over the years, I doubt many are feeling badly about the loss of local control. But would we be justified to wish upon the News and Record what it explicitly supported for the local health care industry two decades ago?

Comments

[Fred Gregory]

Could we be on the dawn of a new era. Is the N&R going to slide quietly into that good night? What would replace it ?

[Triad Conservative]

Fred, I suspect we might be headed toward a single regional paper, with the W-S Journal and the N&R fully merged. It might have its own "local" sections certain days of the week.

[Billy Jones]

Smells like opportunity. Too bad I'm not interested.