newjerseynewsroom.com

BY GINA G. SCALA

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

In a society so reliant on digital life it was bound to happen. Still, Thursday’s confirmation The Times-Picayune, one of the nation’s oldest newspapers, would print just three days a week was troubling.

The change, which includes a newly formed company; an increased web presence and expected job losses, will make New Orleans the largest metro area in the country without a daily newspaper, according to Newser.com.

The New York Times reported similar changes were announced Thursday for three Alabama papers, The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and The Press-Register of Mobile. The papers, along with the Star Ledger of Newark, The Oregonian and The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, are all owned operated by Newhouse Newspapers, part of Advance Publications.

In a statement on the company’s website, Rick Matthews, NOLA Media Group president, said the decision to form a new company signals a change in the way news is delivered to an increasingly wired New Orleans area audience.

For those who rely on the newspaper as the primary source of their news (yes, these people do still exist), learning to live with a Wednesday, Friday, Sunday print schedule will be difficult, acknowledged Jim Amoss, current editor of the Times-Picayune and who will run combined content operations of NOLA Media Group.

"We will continue our 175-year commitment to covering the communities we serve," Amoss said in a statement online. "We will deliver our journalism in print, through NOLA.com and on our mobile platforms 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we invite our readers to become a part of the conversation."

It’s no secret the newspaper industry has struggled in the wake of online news becoming the primary source of information. The ability to update is quicker online, if not always 100 percent accurate. And in the last decade, advertising revenues for most newspapers have declined. Even before that, the rising cost of newspaper ink nearly undid the industry.

"For us, this isn't about print versus digital, this is about creating a very successful multi-platform media company that addresses the ever-changing needs of our readers, our online users and our advertisers," said Advance Publications' president of local digital strategy, Randy Siegel, in an interview with The Associated Press. "This change is not easy, but it's essential for us to remain relevant."

Whatever the reasons; this news is troubling for the one-third of Times-Picayune staff likely to lose their jobs and for the people of New Orleans, as well as the newspaper industry overall. As much as newspaper junkies, myself included would like things to remain the same; they simply can’t.

“But a city like New Orleans, with its rebuilding challenges, its violence, its rich culture, the odd mix of civic virtue and corruption, and its long-term existential risks from hurricanes and rising seas, deserves a first-class newsgathering operation. One that gets the city, but also gets that news is changing,” former Times-Picayune journalist John McQuaid wrote in a Forbes column.

McQuaid also wrote “My heart goes out to my valiant former colleagues, and to the city itself, which will suffer from having reduced news coverage and seeing one of its signature institutions diminished.”

His sentiments are echoed here, and with a growing concern newspaper analyst Ken Doctor’s prediction that Advance will eventually cut print runs in New Jersey, Oregon and Ohio and elsewhere; particularly the Star-Ledger of Newark.

For this newspaper junkie, there’s not a day that goes by without reading the print version of the Star-Ledger of Newark. In fact, it was the first newspaper I ever read cover-to-cover. I was still in grammar school.