New Orleans will become the largest city in America without a daily newspaper. Poytner reports:
Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. has confirmed that the newspaper will cease daily publication, moving to three days a week in the fall: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. He also confirmed staff cuts, though he didn’t say how large they will be. The New York Times’ David Carr reported Wednesday night that the paper likely would cease daily publication and that the two managing editors would leave.
This would make New Orleans the largest U.S. city without a daily newspaper. The Times-Picayune, with a circulation of about 155,000 on Sundays and 134,000 weekdays, would be the largest paper in the U.S. to shift to non-daily publication. Its circulation in March 2005, before Hurricane Katrina flooded the city and shrank the city’s population: about 285,000 on Sundays and 257,000 weekdays.
As I said in the headline, this is truly sad news. A great city like New Orleans seriously needs a daily newspaper, and the Times Picayune has been a fine one for that city.
I agree. Since I was in junior high, the Picayune has been part of the lure of New Orleans for me.
And the Mobile Press Register among others.
The first of a trend, I expect Internet killed the newspaper star.
I was stunned by this news. It’s a sign of just how Katrina has shrunk the city permanently, but also a sign of the changes in the newspaper industry.
I can’t help but wonder if it might not have been possible to print “rump” editions four days a week that wouldn’t be home delivered but would be available from news stands. These racks cater particularly strongly to business people and tourists, both markets that I think would be appealing to advertisers. Surely the Times-Picayune could sell 20,000 copies a day of a 24-page paper to a highly desirable demographic, thus allowing those who really want a newspaper every day to have one. It would serve the customer, the advertiser and I think their bottom line.
CRS, the really sad thing post-Katrina is how much that paper rose to the occasion and has continued to be a good, local paper ever since. It doesn’t seem as subject to the strangled-ever-shrinking-coverage the Gannett papers like the Clarion Ledger have shown.
The dinosaurs met their fate; print media is suffering the same. They are all joining the Daily Planet in newspaper heaven.
CRS,
For some reason I cannot get to your website. Is it just me?
Phil, if you were clicking on my links at left, it may be a glitch that I’ve just fixed. If so, try again.
I really hated to see this, because I have always loved newspapers, but fewer and fewer people read newspapers anymore. At the same time, with readership declining, newspapers continue to alienate the people who might buy and read their paper by their editorial policy. Rarely is there any balance on the editorial pages. Why would I want to pay for a product that assaults by beliefs at every opportunity? I’ll spend my money elsewhere, thank you. I mean, doesn’t it just make sense to balance Maureen Dowd with Ann Coulter, Dana Milbank with Charles Krauthammer, Paul Krugman with Thomas Sowell, Eugene Robinson with Walter Williams, etc., etc., etc.? Too often the “balance” is Milbank and Krugman and a cartoon attacking Republicans and nothing critical of Democrats. Oh, wait, that’s not balance at all, is it?
And newspapers rarely get the story “right” anymore. “Reporters” just regurgitate what people tell them without doing any fact-checking. Or they intentionally skew the reporting to fit their own world view while ignoring important facts (such as recently occurred with the non-reporting of facts regarding George Zimmerman’s injuries and life history which indicated he’d mentored black kids and wasn’t inclined toward racism).
Observer, Exhibit A for you comment about reporters is Jimmie Gates who has mis-reported more often than he get its right about the judicial system in Hinds County for more than 20 years! He is utterly incompetent yet he remains there while real journalists have been bought out to pasture.
Not much on my website lately. I’ve been a bit sickly and then busy catching up! I’m well now.
This is wrong on so many levels. The Picayune has been a terrific newspaper, one I read every day growing up in Gulfport, as almost nobody on the Coast read the Jackson newspapers. And what will Saints fans do on Monday morning when they can’t revel in the big headline shouting about the victoy on Sunday, or mutter curses about the smaller headline announcing the defeat a day earlier? I have a new motto for New Orleans: “New Orleans – moving from a World City to a Third World City in the 21st Century.”
It works now, NMC, so thanks. I thought it could just be something wrong with my computer. I couldn’t get onto the Jackson Free Press site until I sent today, then as soon as I complained, the trouble vanished. If it was always so easy.
Seems I missed out of a lot in Jackson. Could it be Mr. Tollison and Lt. Gov. Reeves may be in on this Illuminati deal as well? Why else are they so secretive?
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/one_night_at_fenians/#c167799
Terrible news. The Times Picayune is a “real” newspaper that serves its city and region well. Many newspapers today try to mask the decline of their local hard news reporting by regurgitating wire service stories and replacing real local journalism with local fluff reporting. The Times Picayune has not yet fully suffered that fate. Quality of reporting is not necessarily tied to a publication schedule so the jury must remain out for now. But I’m not getting a good feeling about the Pic’s future. Or for that matter the future of journalism from all media.
The print media has lost objectivity and refused to invest in investigative reporting. Yes, internet usage has crippled sales. just look at the retail car ads as an example. I use the Clarion Ledger as an example. It refused to investigate the Scruggs debacle, meanwhile propping up General Hood at every opportunity.
BTW, all is right with the world, again.
Congrats, Bulldogs
The irony is that New Orleans is undergoing a true renaissance right now. I’ve been spending a lot of time down there recently and there are tons of buildings being renovated, new businesses popping up everywhere, a restaurant boom, etc. There was an article in the TP this past Sunday that detailed how many excellent investment opportunities there are in the city, in contrast with years past. Many long-time residents of New Orleans are really excited about the future, for the first time in a long time. There is a group of local philanthropists who are getting together to see if anything can be done about the TP’s future, but it may be too late.