Save the Times Picayune.... Sign the Petition

Click  here to sign the petition to Save the Times Picayune.

A great city deserves a great newpaper
and we've had one of the best for too long to lose it now.

Add your name to list of those who want Newhouse to know that
New Orleans isn't like other cities
and that a newspaper with loyal readership deserves 7 day a week delivery.

This isn't a choice of newpaper or online.
It's a choice between quality news and drivel.

Rock 'n Bowl Tailgate party to support daily newspaper

Rock 'n Bowl tailgate to support daily newspaper. (Click to read more)

Supporters of The Times-Picayune and its employees will gather in the parking lot at Rock 'n' Bowl in Mid-City Monday, June 4 at 4 p.m. "to send a message," according to organizer Anne Rolfes. "It is a gathering to deliver the news to [parent company] Newhouse that we want our paper every day."

The event, which Rolfes says will be a tailgate with live music, is to be held the day that T-P employees will begin to find out whether they will lose or keep their jobs.

The announcement of the rally said a coordinated cancellation plan — of both newspaper subscriptions and advertising — will be discussed as a possible way to get the attention of Advance Publications."

Times Picayune and Voting with Dollars

Dear owners of the Times Picayune and The Lens.

It seems The Times Picayune thinks of me more as a product to be sold than as a consumer of information, that they are more interested in selling advertising than they are in providing news content.  In this business model reporters are simply overhead and the news I think I am buying is merely the delivery method for the advertising.

This is why print media are "failing".

I support NPR because I want the highest quality journalism I can find.  The decision the Times Picayune has made caused me to realize that I have the same option for Local News.  I want to support journalists who provide the product I really want and not simply a delivery method for advertising owned by people who are far, far from New Orleans.  So unless and until the TP changes their decision, I'm voting with my dollars.  The Lens will now get the same financial support from me that I formerly gave the Times Picayune. Oh and no more gift subscriptions for others either, so the TP isn't just loosing one delivery address. 

I still think that the Times Picayune is a great loss to New Orleans.  We have too many people who don't have the capacity to "consume" online news.   I still think that a tangible newspaper that can be waved about and pointed to and read without the need for electricity is valuable.   I also think that award winning journalism on disappearance of our coastline or recent reporting on the inner workings of our prison system is important to put in front of New Orleanians.  I want to continue to know what Jarvis DeBerry thinks.  I want to see who James Gill is poking with his rapier wit.  I want to see where Stephanie Bruno has walked this week.  I want to be aware of the offerings and the rhythms of the city, good and bad.  I want to be comforted in knowing that Bob Marshall and Mark Schleifstein are doing their best to keep us aware of the desperate state of our coastline.  I want to sample the opinions of others without having to wade through all the hateful trash that shows up in the comments on Nola.com.

But to the owners of the Times Picayune I am just a consumer of advertising. They don't value me as anything more than something to be offered to their real customers. And they don't value the journalists who provide the wrapper for this advertising and this is why they will eventually fail, in print and online.

Simple Pleasure and the Times Picayune

All week I work either in front of a computer screen or in collaboration with people who either want something from me and my team or who need to be told and cajoled to follow required corporate practices.

I know technology. My house has Wi-Fi and broadband. We have cable and Roku. We have smartphones and Facebook accounts and then there is Flickr and blogging. We're solidly in the technical age.

But we LIVE in New Orleans, in a city that has always been so far behind it's ahead. We, New Orleanians, relish the simple pleasures: A good cup of coffee or a Sazerac on our patios and porches. The sounds of the calliope or the whistles of trains. We compare the song cycle offerings of our neighborhood mockingbirds. (Ours does Blue Jays, Cardinals, Thrushes, 1 house alarm and 3 different car alarms and the beep-beep associated with locking and unlocking cars and every once in a while lets loose with a unique only in NorthWest Carrollton repartee. But I digress.) We talk about what's growing in our gardens and share plants and seeds and the bounty. We wander to the Art Market and Hollygrove Market & Farm for local offerings of Art and Food. We have a bowling alley that offers live music for crying out loud.

I know how to get to news using technology. But as a New Orleanian I don't want that to be the primary way I get my daily news. At the end of a work day I want to settle into the my patio or couch with a Sazerac or a glass of ice tea and flip the tangible, not virtual, pages of my daily city newspaper. I want to take a look at the silly horoscope and see how many stars the day I just lived had and reconcile that with what actually happened. If it's Friday I want to see what the Lagniappe says is happening in town so I can plan just how ambitious I'll be in taking part in the many festivities or where I can go to avoid them. Or on a weekend I want to spread the paper on the dining room table and wander from the kitchen with a cup of coffee and imbibe slowly but steadily though all the sections. I may do left over dishes in between a section or start a load of laundry or decide to water plants on the patio. But what is lovely and unique about this newsprint newspaper experience is that I while I can take my time and wander from thing to thing, I know when I'm done with all the sections so I feel sated and complete.

With a 75% penetration rate (am I the only one who thinks that's a awful way to talk about the people who pay for the privilege to read the paper?) I'm obviously not alone.

This forced move to digital is not the reason why the TP has so many (compared to other markets) faithful subscribers. What we are paying for is the simple pleasure of unplugging to get our news, to take it slow, to be contemplative, to see a well written story by someone who lives in and knows our city that we might not see or even want to experience if we were to limit ourselves to what we know and like online.

This forced move is all about profits for out of town owners who are greedy and out of touch with the people they serve and on whom their longer term success is dependent. New Orleans knows something about how to be unique and successful. It seems this is something that the Newhouse folks seem to be completely unable to grasp. So instead they are leaping over the digital cliff, leaving behind the town and the advertisers that are willing ready and able to continue to pay the bill for the simple pleasure of reading news in newsprint form.

Rant by Rightandwrong May 26, 2012 at 4:31AM

Day 3 of the war against Newhouse to Save the Picayune.

 

Please read the comment below originally posted on Nola.com.  It is deserving of it's own "page".

Rightandwrong May 26, 2012 at 4:31AM
Dear NOLA Media Group/nola.com/Times-Picayune:

... From a native New Orleanian, life long hard copy paper subscriber, and avid online reader:

1) For a digitally focused company, you have botched your first new product, the new nola.com web site/home page/portal beyond belief. Stop offering your critics navigation advice, your problems are much deeper than that. No one in the area likes it, it is dead on arrival. The old web site, even with its problems, was a thousand times better than this new offering.

2) Your new President/Publisher is finished. He just doesn't know it yet. a) He got scooped by two other products, both DIGITAL. One out of town (the New York Times!?!), and the other local (Gambit!?!). So much for timeliness. b) He botched the announcement. Really, you guys couldn't have done a better job than that? c) He completely mishandled the employees, and some management, and it was widely reported. New Orleans does not easily forget things like this. d) He ticked off Anne Milling. Yes, she is only one person, but a very smart person who also has a darn good feel for the city. For the moment, she is more upset with you than with FEMA or the Corps of Engineers. Think about that.

3) Yes, you guys are more reviled, at least for the moment, than either the Corps of Engineers or FEMA, and not just by locals. Have you paid attention to the reaction across the nation? Your corporate owners are fast becoming pariahs in the industry. Try putting that on your resume.

4) You have humiliated us. The largest city in the country without a daily newspaper? People begging the Baton Rouge Advocate (the Advocate!?!) to enter your market, our City, to give us the news? New Orleanians begging Tom Benson (!!!) to buy the paper? How outrageously ironic!

5) You have, or shortly will have, divided us into the digitally capable, and those who are not. More than just the haves, and have nots, you have seriously upset our senior citizens. You probably don't care, but often a community or society is judged by how it treats its older members. Try explaining to them what it is that you are about to do.

6) You should be ashamed. For all of the above.

An Open Letter to Steve Newhouse

Take a look at this OPEN LETTER to Steve Newhouse, out of town owner of the Times Picayune:

" Dear Mr. Newhouse

Getting rid of the daily Times-Picayune is like closing down Galatoire's, ending Jazz Fest, and moving out the Saints all rolled into one. I'm writing this not out of nostalgia for the past but out of urgency for the city's future. New Orleans needs a daily Times-Picayune. The city is still recovering and rebuilding from one of the worst disasters in recent American history. It was a disaster that your paper did a heroic job covering. Journalists risked their lives for the city they loved and justly received international recognition for their hard work. It was one the finest moments for your media empire. But you are about to turn that victory into a sad defeat. All of that hard work and recognition is going to be flushed away if the daily paper ceases operations.

While I agree that someday newspapers will be replaced almost entirely by new media, New Orleans is not the place where that bold experiment should be launched. Thousands and thousands of Times-Picayune readers do not have easy access to the Internet or the wherewithal to read the paper electronically. These are the people who your newspaper was designed to help -- and they have loyally read it each day until their own name appeared in the death notices. Your paper championed their cause. These are the people who may miss your daily newspaper the most.
Simply put: by ceasing operation of the daily paper, you are comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. Corrupt politicians should be celebrating on Bourbon Street tonight, knowing there will be whole days of the week where no newspaper will appear, probing their misdeeds. And don't claim that some web edition will adequately replace the daily paper; that's like telling a man who is getting his arm amputated that he'll still be able to clap. The web does not have the power and reach that a newspaper does. It can't be read over eggs and bacon, folded up and brought to the Fairgrounds or the Superdome. It can't be handed to someone else. And it costs less than a dollar.

New Orleans has so much news, culture, food, and music to write about that journalists in other cities drool at the opportunity that Times-Picayune reporters are given. It's a first-class city and deserves to be treated that way by your corporation. You own a public trust and you're about to close it it down on certain days of the week. I realize that times are tough but pulling the plug on the daily paper is like raising a white flag. Imagine if all the residents of the city gave up on New Orleans and moved away after Katrina? Don't pull up the ladder to the attic.

Lastly, you were the first person to give me a paying job in journalism. I worked at the Jersey Journal in Jersey City, N.J., as an intern in the summers of 1988 and 1989 while I was a college student. You hired me and gave me a start and a chance to make a difference. It hurts me deeply to see someone who I feel contributed so positively to my life make such a negative decision. Please reconsider this move that will be so bad for the Newhouse empire and the great city of New Orleans.

Yours truly,

Bob Hardt
Rockaway Beach, NY"

Express your outrage NOW!

What can you do to Save the Times Picayune?

Call Advance Publications at 718-981-1234

or

Steven Newhouse at Advance Internet at 415-344-0873.

Express your outrage NOW!