NEW ORLEANS — As you may have heard, plans are afoot by Advance Publications to scale back the 175-year-old New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper from a daily into a three times a week version with an increased focus on their website. (Much more about that here and here and here.)
The problem is, around here, the Times Pic isn't a business. It's family. As Crescent City resident Harry Shearer wrote today:
"The newspaper business lives off the benefits of free speech, which all citizens enjoy, but none more than news outlets, who put out so much of it. The First Amendment offers government protection against almost all lawsuits from angry politicians, lazy ballplayers, and dim-witted celebrities whose exploits may be reported to their dismay. Should there be a societal expectation that the proprietors of such privileged enterprises owe a little something back—perhaps a calm acceptance of a lower profit margin than could be attained, say, in the car-leasing business? The TP, after all, is still reported to be profitable. On the other hand, Advance has signaled—by this stumble-footed decision—that they don't understand the New Orleans market. You can't care about what you don't understand."
On Monday, hundreds of dismayed New Orleanians –and one seriously sweaty MaddowBlogger— sweltered in the parking lot of the Rock N Bowl in 93 degree heat to protest what's happening. Here's what a few locals told me:
Sherry Alexander, journalism professor, Loyola University:
"There's such disparate kinds of people here. There's poor people, a lot of poor people, and a lot of people that can't read very well at all, and the Times-Picayune has served to bring us all together, and I'm afraid with people getting their news from all different sources we won't have this in common anymore."
Jewel Bush, communications coordinator, SEIU:
"I think every writer who grew up in New Orleans had that same starry-eyed vision of having a byline in the Times Picayune. I think, I equate it with like a part of New Orleans, like Schwegmann's, like this grocery store that is now defunct. And it's just a piece of New Orleans."
Kathryn Parker, the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University:
"The investigative journalism is unbelievable. I mean, think about all the indictments that have come as a result of the coverage of the Times Picayune, and when we lose that, I feel like, you know, our leaders won't be held accountable, our police department won't be held accountable, and we just desperately have to have that to be a functioning city, to get better, to recover."
Naomi King, communications and training coordinator at the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University:
"I have to say it's mind boggling to me that Houma, Louisiana and Thibodaux, Louisiana, and Morgan City, Louisiana are going to have daily papers but not New Orleans."
Bill Borah, lawyer:
"You know, it's a perfectly well-read paper, I mean amazingly—go talk to people. Don't just throw the baby out with the bath. Recognize the problems that print media has, but you don't have to do what they're doing. I think it's short-sighted, and I think it'd do great harm for the city."
Lolis Eric Elie, former Times Picayune writer and now a staff writer for HBO's Treme, told the crowd:
"I think this is yet another example of New Orleanians attempting to take back our city from people who would otherwise seek to destroy it."
And finally, Kermit Ruffins, trumpeter and consummate New Orleans showman told me:
"I just can't imagine the elderly people, and the poor people that's not able to get their paper no more. Imagine not getting their Sunday morning paper… I used to go through that every Sunday morning, me and my little brother. Hopefully, we can do something to stop this tragedy. And this city is known for coming together and making good stuff happen, so I don't ever doubt that we can change what's about to happen."
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Well, we'll just call it the "Some-Times Picayune" from now on. Unfortunately, to be honest, the news that you receive in the TP often times is around 2 days old due to the printing process.
Sadly, most of us first found out that the T-P would no longer be running on the T-P online or Nola.com... case in point. I'm glad it's not going the way of the Do-Do entirely, though. My grandfather was a cartoonist for the T-P for many, many years. News biz just ain't what it used to be, I guess. (says the girl reading news online...)
And what will all those old ladies on Prytaina Street use to line their Finch cages?! What will we use as an impromptu placemat for Crawfish Boils? How shall we potty-train our Catahoula Cur Dogs?!
At first I thought this article was going to debate the pros and cons of TOILET PAPER!
RM, Picy, picy, picy. Warning: If three times weekly, the third weekly installment for Texas Gov Rick Perry must be complimentary, to avoid confusion. Also, how would you split The Fench Quarter, into thirds? Split the Quarter, but let The Garden Dictrict pick first? And hopefully, Mother's popular, debris sandwich won't include the paper. For sure, no one wants to march in a N'Awlins Funeral Parade for that tradition. END. All above fictional. Any similarity to rteal person(s), event(s), place(s) coincidental. Not responsible for errors. If we can save the city, we can do something to save the paper, for sure.
The #1 thing that impacted newspapers is the Internet. Looks like they have a nice web site.
The problem is that the New Orleans Times has a "vanity" web site that is not set up to make money.
All the advertising links out to other organizations when you click them.
I don't see anywhere to sign up with a credit card for access to things that should require a payment, like classified ads, obituaries, recent news events. Things that are time critical should be delayed by a week or two if you are not paying.
They need to figure out how to exploit the web market to make up for lost revenue instead of reducing distribution.
My local paper told me that they didn't like the Internet about 10 years ago when I called to ask about their web site. Nearly went out of business before they figured out how to use the web to make money. Half a dozen "reporters" used this delay to put up their own web sites that compete with them while they had their head buried in the sand.
Common problem for newspaper organizations. They want to continue to do the same things they were doing 30 years ago after the world has moved on to the next new thing.
This is not isolated to New Orleans, happening with the major newspaper publisher here in Alabama, also. Whether a newspaper is good or not doesn't seem to have a lot to do with it's ability to survive in the internet age.
Maddcow needs to call his show "I'm The Most Important Person On Earth"...
In my own mind.
Boy, did you pick the right nick.
"The investigative journalism is unbelievable. I mean, think about all the indictments that have come as a result of the coverage of the Times Picayune, and when we lose that, I feel like, you know, our leaders won't be held accountable, our police department won't be held accountable, and we just desperately have to have that to be a functioning city, to get better, to recover."
Honey, that's exactly why they're shutting it down. Not because it doesn't serve the real people of New Orleans, but because it does.
Today I read an article in the Times Picayune that I wanted to share with someone in Rhode Island. When I went to NOLA.com - it was not included. Maybe the online editor thought the article was too "regional"? This is at least the 10th time this year that this has happened. Luckily, I can cut the article out and send it to my friend. Unfortunately, it appears that the online service does not now, nor will it in the future, include the diversity of information that we now appreciate from the Times Picayune.
When the paper is gone you can easily line your parrot cage with the crap you getin your mailbox.... until the post office goes away...
This is a great intersection of a town, it's newspaper and the RM cocktail moment. Might be good to feature. Brennan's family of restaurants come up with series of drinks to honor the Times-Picayune journalists.
http://jimromenesko.com/2012/06/08/new-orleans-restaurants-to-serve-save-the-picayune-cocktails/