Thursday, May 24, 2012

Report: New Orleans paper dropping print editions

[Updated at 1:01 p.m. ET with confirmation from Newhouse, more details.]

Advance Publications, parent of Newhouse, also announced that it would reduce printing to three days a week at its three Alabama papers in Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville, according to Poynter Online.

From a post late last night by David Carr on The New York Times' Media Decoder blog:

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which distinguished itself amid great adversity during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is about to enact large staff cuts and may cut back its daily print publishing schedule, according to two employees with knowledge of the plans.

The plans by owner Newhouse Newspapers have been kept under wraps, but the newspaper will likely publish two or three times a week rather than daily, according to the employees.

21 comments:

  1. If true, this is terrible news for our industry. The TP is a survivor and appeared to be rebounding. Newhouse has always been a leader. If this happens in NOLA, just think what money-hungry gannett execs will do to smaller gannett properties.

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  2. Wait, I'm confused. From reading this blog, I had grown to think only bad things like this happened at Gannett because of incompetent management. So Newhouse management is incompetent too?

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  3. Poynter confirms the bad news with a memo sent to staff this morning:

    http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/175038/times-picayune-confirms-end-of-daily-publication/

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  4. The Newhouse family wants to remain rich and will do anything to do so. And, like Hearst, they are privately owned, so the pressure is not from Wall Street, but from the ever-growing number of cousins who just want their monthly checks.

    You can bet some of those being canned nearly lost life and limb, if not their homes and all possessions, during Katrina.

    The news business has become a corrupt one. There's just no one left to report it.

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  5. Why is this bad? Detroit did this 3 years ago and it worked perfectly. Removed costs, retained advertising $, grew Sunday readership/volumes, introduced the relevancy of e-Editions (they are second to WSJ) and volume declines are mostly better than other markets.

    You people need to pull it together.

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  6. WWL-TV had a 4-minute report this morning on the T-P's transition to mostly digital.

    According to New Orleans city weekly Gambit, many T-P employees learned about the transition from the New York Times account posted last night. Romenesko adds that Newhouse's Alabama dailies will go mostly digital as well. (The T-P's new publisher used to be publisher at a sister daily in Mobile.)

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  7. This is bad because the new format will include massive layoffs. Happened in Ann arbor.

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    Replies
    1. Ann Arbor just got a lot of work with the closing of the Livingston Arguably in Howell, Mi.

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    2. Argus. Sorry.

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  8. If the people being laid off can't even capitalize Ann Arbor correctly (see previous post), then good riddance.

    I'm tired of seeing bad writers go on and on unchecked. Time for mass layoffs and firings.

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  9. Jim, any analysis about the impact this will have on the Montgomery Advertiser? There are four large metro papers in Alabama, and three are now going to three days a week.

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  10. 1:33 - You have no idea if the poster you are insulting works in Ann Arbor, but you put them down anyway. Do you feel better about yourself?

    It takes a real big person to do what you do behind the anonymity of a keyboard.

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  11. Says 2:18, posting as Anonymous.

    I do feel better. Terrible writers should be laid off and fired in droves.

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  12. Sick.Proves that public service stuff is BS we buy into to work hard and think we make a difference. This business is about making money. It's just a business protected by the First Amendment.

    Hey employes who lost everything but their lives and clothes on their backs in Katrina. Who stayed at work for days as their families were adrift. Some employees who had mental and physical breakdowns and PTSD.

    Yeah, all of you now get the hell out and don't let the door hit you.

    Let state and local corruption reign.

    The owners are not Gannett, but a privately held company, with an increasing number of Newhouse family members who just want their checks.

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  14. 3:49, there are words to describe what a dumb piece of shit you are.

    Bad day at the unemployment line?

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  15. Impressive and original. Must have taken a long time to think that one up.

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  16. 8:35 p.m. I've read those lines somewhere before. You must write for Patch.

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  17. The beancounters are destroying this industry. It's just disgusting to watch accountants tell editors how to run a newsroom. New Orleans deserves better. The Times-Picayune's web site is pathetic and will never compensate for a daily paper. Look what has happened in Michigan. Terrible news for our industry & our country.

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  18. No, sweetheart, the beancounters are not destroying the industry. The inexorable forces of modernity did that. The unjustly maligned beancounters are just trying to put off the funeral as long as possible.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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