Two high-profile crime cases in the past couple of weeks caused some readers to wonder: What criteria does The News & Observer use to decide how much coverage to give to murder and mayhem stories?

When Sen. Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July, it seemed the perfect patriotic departure for the paladin of the conservative right.

For a time, a notice was posted in The News & Observer newsroom that said: "Change is good; you go first."

The recent McClatchy series on Guantanamo detainees that ran in The News & Observer brought some strong reaction from readers.

There's no getting around it: The job cuts and other changes announced by The News & Observer last week mean that readers will be getting less.

Why does The News & Observer need to see Eve Carson's autopsy report? That was the question from several readers last week after they read stories about the paper's lawsuit to obtain the official autopsy report on the slain UNC student body

It's budget season for local governments around the Triangle, and that's a challenge for any newspaper. In my old newsrooms, we used to refer to budget stories as "DBIs" -- dull but important.

The ongoing soap opera that is the Lynn Paddock trial illustrates a divergence in the standards of journalism as practiced in print and online.

A signal moment in The News & Observer's history passed quietly this month. Jerry Allegood, Eastern North Carolina correspondent for the last 35 years, took retirement.

What should newspapers call people from other countries who entered the United States in violation of federal immigration and nationality law?

The calls and e-mails started pouring in within hours of the DNA report last Monday. The words differed, but the message was the same: When is The News & Observer going to 'fess up that it got the Duke sexual assault story wrong?

Outrage" has been the operative word to describe community sentiment in Durham in the past week. And justifiably so, if the allegations against members of the Duke men's lacrosse team are even close to true.

Philip Meyer is a newspaperman who thinks he can measure anything.

Aaaarrrrgh! That was the sound you heard Tuesday from the editors' offices on the third floor of The News & Observer building. Maybe it echoed around some readers' kitchen tables that morning too, as folks read the seven corrections.

An ugly incident at the N.C. State-Wake Forest game prompted an even uglier public debate last week about journalism as practiced at The News & Observer. Let's talk about it.

Rare is the week that this public editor doesn't receive a complaint that The News & Observer has ignored an important news story.

The News & Observer's news columnists have been getting under readers' skins lately. That's good.

Got a call the other day from a reader wanting to know why The News & Observer had downplayed the resignation of CNN news chief Eason Jordan. Jordan, you'll recall, stirred controversy with his reported assertion that the U.S. military had deliberate

Last week, we explored in this space the issue of how reporters should treat "private citizens" who are not used to dealing with the media.