The NOLA daily newspaper, The Times Picayune just announced that it is dropping it's daily circulation to 3 days a week. (Sunday,Wednesday,Friday). The remainder will be available online. While this does not surprise me in some respects,I was still shocked to hear it. I never thought it would happen here. Needless to say, people are very upset and up in arms about it. Call it the wave of the future, I still never thought it would happen here in NOLA where traditions and resistance to any change run very deep.
Believe it or not, the fate of the Times Picayune was much commented in the French press, since it is the first major American city without a daily newspaper. The articles mentioned that the owner of the Times Picayune also owns lots of small newspapers in various parts of the country and had already imposed this in various places.
I know that it is not really a tragedy as long as the online edition exists, but being myself of one of the older generations, it does distress me to see the daily availability of a paper edition disappear. I'm sure that this feeling will pass in another 5 or 10 years when all of the paper editions disappear.
What's really tragic is the manner in which the employees of the paper,editors included found out. It was posted on a N.Y Times wire website before they were even told. Some were "twitted".
Yes, the publisher,from the prominent Newhouse family owns several smaller newspapers around the US, Ann Arbor, Michigan being another. The Times Picayune is the only one which has been operating under a profit, although, on the decline annually. I know several people personally who write for the TP and many of them will likely be jobless by mid summer.
No fewer than two Paris dailies have gone under in the last year. One was a financial daily that went to the internet with a paper edition once a week. The other one used to be the #1 daily in France in the 1960's -- France Soir -- and had been in deep decline from the 1980's on. A few years ago it was bought by a Russian billionaire as a plaything for his son, age 24, who pumped more than 100 million euros into it but failed miserably. It went to an exclusively internet version about 3 months ago.
The best quote that I've read regarding this was this past week from the former book editor of the TP and radio host of The Reading Life on our local NPR station, WWNO, Susan Larson:
"What does it mean that we lose the cherished reading object we hold in our hands? What does it mean that our children do not see us begin and end our days with a newspaper modeling the importance, not only of reading, but of civic engagement itself?"
If I were designing the weapon of the future, I would concentrate on something that simply makes all digital technology go blank. Can you imagine how crippled we would all be if that happened?
But at least some of us have homes full of paper books. At least we wouldn't be bored while we waited to die of starvation.
in another 5 or 10 years when all of the paper editions disappear.
Then what would we line our birdcages with? What would Brits get their fish and chips wrapped in? And will we be putting lumberjacks out of work by eliminating the need to chop down millions of trees a year to satisfy the newspaper industry's need for paper?
It has long been known that there are many ways to protect against nuclear EMP (or to quickly begin repairs where protection is not practical); but the United States EMP Commission determined that such protections are almost completely absent in the civilian infrastructure of the United States, and that even large sectors of the United States military services were no longer protected against EMP to the level that they were during the Cold War. The public statements of the physicists and engineers working in the EMP field tend to emphasize the importance of making electronic equipment and electrical components resistant to EMP — and of keeping adequate spare parts on hand, and in the proper location, to enable prompt repairs to be made.[22][34][47] The United States EMP Commission did not look at the civilian infrastructures of other nations.
in another 5 or 10 years when all of the paper editions disappear.
Then what would we line our birdcages with? What would Brits get their fish and chips wrapped in? And will we be putting lumberjacks out of work by eliminating the need to chop down millions of trees a year to satisfy the newspaper industry's need for paper?
This is when all the newspaper hoarders ( a very common item most hard core hoarders keep) will make a fortune!!!!!
This is when all the newspaper hoarders ( a very common item most hard core hoarders keep) will make a fortune!!!!!
If they can bear to part with their collection. Most likely, the heirs who have to sort out the mess will be the ones raking in the profits at the recycling station.
I know several people personally who write for the TP and many of them will likely be jobless by mid summer.
From American Journalism Review, June/July 2012 issue
Newhouse Flunks the Test in New Orleans
Its Web site buries the blow-by-blow of major layoffs at the Times-Picayune while showcasing a feel-good video from the paper’s editor. Tues., June 12, 2012. By Rem Rieder, AJR's editor and senior vice president.
To minimize the damage to New Orleans of Newhouse's plan to convert the Times-Picayune into a three times a week newspaper, it's critical that the company's NOLA.com be a robust, highly informative Web site, shining a bright light on the important news of the day.
The way it treated today's bloodletting at the paper was not encouraging.
At 3:15 p.m., the third most prominent news item on the site was a video in which Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss discussed the company's plans for the future. There wasn't any news there. Amoss simply revisited the May 24 announcement that the Newhouse operation would become digital-first, reducing the print publication schedule and cutting the staff.
He did so in a very reassuring manner, accentuating the positive, such as it is.
But what about all of the layoffs that were being carried out today inside Times-Picayune headquarters? That's what New Orleanians wanted to read about. How sharp were the cuts? Who were the casualties?
This is a city with a particularly close relationship to its newspaper, as the paper's impressive penetration numbers and the protests that have greeted the new Times-Pic game plan make eminently clear. Surely, if the company felt the need to once again justify its new approach way above the digital fold, the report on actual news from the front would come next, right?
Nope.
Batting fourth: "Man fatally shot in Gentilly Monday is identified." Then came the news that Ann Rutherford, who played Scarlett O'Hara's sister in "Gone with the Wind," had died at 94, followed by the latest on the Eric Holder and Jerry Sandusky sagas; "'American Idol' sets New Orleans auditions for July 17; "Federal judge seeks records related to Danziger Bridge leaks probe."
Well, we're getting pretty low, but surely now the latest on the cuts?
Not so fast.
Next, a couple of side-by-side ads, one a house ad, and to the right the ever-popular photo of the day, a PG shot of the World Naked Bike Ride.
Next up: "Firefighters report progress on Colorado, New Mexico wildfires."
Really?
Finally, the 11th top story on NOLA.com: "Times-Picayune lays off nearly one-third of its staff."
Among the casualties: award-winning restaurant critic Brett Anderson, in a town that worships its food as much as it worships its music. Others going away include Managing Editors Peter Kovacs and Dan Shea, sports columnist Peter Finney and religion writer Bruce Nolan.
One of the true tests of any news organizations is how well it covers itself. It's a test many frequently flunk. But here was a golden opportunity for the embattled Times-Picayune to step up, to emphasize its commitment to transparency by giving prominent treatment to an uncomfortable story.
Yes, the whole thing went down in a very shabby way. I doubt Newhouse will ever be able to "eat lunch in this town ever again", not unless he is in mask perhaps.
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