New Orleans to be largest US city without daily newspaper

From Newsy: The saying “out with the old, and in with the new” is hitting home in New Orleans. The city’s daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune, announced starting this fall it will only publish Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Jobs will also be cut as the paper makes some more modern changes. CNN explains.

“The publisher said in a memo the Time-Picayune needed to dedicate more resources to its online presence. He announced a new media group including NOLA.com which will continue to report seven days a week.”

A new company called NOLA Media Group will include the Times-Picayune and its affiliate website. Forbes.com says according to the paper’s publisher the...

“...best path to success lies in a digitally focused organization that combines the award winning journalism of the Times-Picayune and the strength of NOLA.com”

The Times-Picayune received international recognition for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But many of its subscribers were forced out of the city by the storm, never to return. Today, the paper reaches about 155-thousand doorsteps on Sundays and 134-thousand on weekdays. But Poynter says it was double that before the storm.

“...circulation in March 2005, before Katrina flooded the city and shrank the population: about 285,000 on Sundays and 257,000 on weekdays.”

On Twitter, David Hammer, the investigative reporter at the Times-Picayune told his followers...

“...It’s like a morgue in the newsroom today.”

But According to Gambit, a New Orleans Weekly newspaper, it may be the way the announcement was made that had people so upset. The website says...

“...Even longtime senior writers and editors — said they learned of their fates from The New York Times report. One employee said, ‘I had to find this out by Twitter. Do I go into the office tomorrow? Do I even have a job to go in to tomorrow?’”

That same report says about a third of the paper's reporters will be fired, along with top executives. When the change is made, New Orleans will become the largest U.S. city without a daily newspaper.