It’s been rumored for a while now, but a source confirmed last week that the Capital Broadcasting Company, which owns Triangle news giant WRAL-TV as well as a number of smaller local television and radio stations, has acquired the blog Raleigh & Company and The Point, a daily email newsletter.
Shawn Krest, a sports journalist who is one of many contributors to Raleigh & Company, confirmed that he was brought on board by WRAL at the beginning of August to manage the blog and the email newsletter. Krest says he is not aware of the circumstances of the acquisition or if any money changed hands. Jordan Rogers, a freelance writer who founded Raleigh & Company and has served as its managing editor since January 2014, did not respond to the INDY’s requests for clarification. (Rogers is no longer the blog’s managing editor, according to his public Twitter account.) WRAL did not respond to our requests for information either.
Raleigh & Company bills itself as “a group of writers, journalists and producers working to provide a world class online platform for anyone producing interesting stories, reports, ideas, opinions and art.” Contributors are professional and hobbyist news, sports and lifestyle writers from across the state, including several who’ve also written for the INDY. (The blog has reported on our recent editorial leadership changes, including a new story posted this morning.) The Point is a daily email newsletter of “the things you need to know to get your day started in the Triangle,” including current events, politics, sports, weather and local entertainment “all served up with a bit of edge.”
WRAL-TV, a CBS affiliate serving Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville areas, began broadcasting in 1956; it is carried in markets as far east as Wilmington, as well as in parts of Charlotte and the Triad. WRAL currently produces 33-and-a-half hours of locally generated newscasts per week from its studio on Western Boulevard in Raleigh, which it shares with Fox-affiliated station WRAZ. Consistently the highest-rated television news station in the Triangle and the winner of multiple local Emmys, WRAL supplements its newscasts with a not-inconsiderable amount of online coverage, and it could use Raleigh & Company to bolster its online brand. Its motivation for acquiring The Point, however, seems an unsolvable mystery.