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. With Allegood's departure, the Greenville bureau was closed, leaving the paper without a correspondent based "Down East."

Those events follow other recent changes in the Eastern North Carolina coverage. The paper no longer has a state reporter assigned to cover news outside the Triangle, and an editing position assigned to state news is unfilled.

While The N&O still has substantial circulation in Eastern North Carolina, the larger significance of the changes is that The N&O is no longer the state newspaper that it once was.

The changes result from shifting market realities and the tightening financial condition of the newspaper. While growth in Eastern North Carolina is slow to nonexistent -- with the exception of coastal resorts and Greenville -- the Triangle area is booming. In response, the paper is shifting its resources to the core market. At the same time, the paper has reduced news staffing through attrition and, more recently, buyouts.

John Drescher, executive editor, says The N&O will continue to cover stories in Eastern North Carolina, but with reporters assigned out of Raleigh. "There are still good stories there. We have significant circulation there. We have the historical ties to the region. The people of Eastern North Carolina mean a lot to us, and I think The News & Observer means a lot to them. But the bottom line is I only have a certain number of jobs."

The recent changes have accelerated a longer-term trend of withdrawal from the eastern region. At one time, The N&O provided home delivery in 50 of the state's 100 counties. There were three news bureaus: in Fayetteville, Greenville and Jacksonville. Circulation outside the Triangle reputedly was 40 percent of the N&O's total distribution.

That began to change in 1984, when The N&O cut back home delivery to 25 counties to eliminate unprofitable circulation. As local papers in the east improved -- Greenville, Rocky Mount, Wilson, New Bern, Kinston -- the trend accelerated.

In 1980, The N&O had daily circulation of 55,529 in eastern counties. Today, that's down to 21,881. But the loss has been more than made up in Wake, Durham and Orange counties, where combined circulation has gone from 56,132 to 118,648. The N&O's total average circulation this year is 172,029 daily, 210,185 Sunday.

Jim Puryear, The N&O's circulation vice president, says the numbers reflect a deliberate shift in sales effort from the east to the Triangle, where circulation profit is higher and advertisers value the readership more. "It makes more sense to put your effort in Wake County than in Chocowinity," he said.

Puryear said he's not concerned about the effect on circulation of closing the Greenville bureau. But people in Greenville are upset.

"A disaster of epic proportions" is how John Durham, executive director of communications at East Carolina University, described Allegood's departure. "The people I have talked to are disappointed that The N&O has made the decision to close the bureau. The N&O is widely read and respected in Greenville and this part of the state, and Jerry has been an important part of that. He is an extremely knowledgeable, thoughtful, fair and conscientious reporter of everything from hurricanes to barbecue.

"Without a physical presence, a lot of people are worried that The N&O's continuing coverage of the region is likely to suffer both in quantity and quality of reporting."

Durham frets also about future coverage of ECU news and sports. The N&O no longer has a sports reporter assigned to East Carolina, which has 13,000 alumni in the Triangle -- same as Duke.

But he pointed out something that makes it likely Easterners won't drop their N&O reading habit completely. People there look to The N&O not so much for coverage of news from the area -- which after all is provided by the local newspapers -- but of the Capitol, state government and politics. As long as The N&O continues to provide that coverage and its trademark watchdog journalism, it still will have value for readers there, he said.

As a longtime N&Oer, and as a friend of Allegood, I hate to see the changes, too. I do think a dropoff is inevitable in the type of important regional stories -- such as the environment, growth and issues like the Navy's controversial outlying landing field -- covered by Allegood. If there's not a watchdog on the premises to sniff, some stories won't come out.

But I have a hard time arguing away the issues -- local growth, declining resources -- that force the change. I asked Drescher whether, despite such factors, The N&O has a public service responsibility to provide the coverage Down East. Yes, he said. "But we have a public service mission in Wake County, too, that we need to do a better job of meeting."