Subscriber Drops Suit Against Newspaper

The subscriber who sued The News & Observer last month after the Raleigh, N.C., newspaper cut its staff says he has dropped his suit.

Keith Hempstead, the Durham, N.C., lawyer who filed the lawsuit, said he withdrew the complaint feeling that his point had been made, the newspaper reported Monday.

Hempstead, 42, said he was interviews by such media outlets as The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Harper’s Magazine, National Public Radio and The New Yorker.

He said the lawsuit was filed to pressure the newspaper to stop trimming its staff and reducing its news coverage.

By getting rid of staff, you’re producing an inferior product that is dooming the newspaper industry into obsolescence, he said Monday. Attempts to fill the news hole with syndicated columnists, wire stories and cheap filler instead of writing from local staff makes the paper like any other news source.

The lawsuit, filed last month in Wake Superior Court, accused the newspaper of breaching its contract with him by trimming its news space.

If I didn’t bring this up, those people arguing about (the cuts) may not have been given a voice, he said.