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Tale of Regret for Powerhouse Newspaper

The Shop Talk panelists discuss the struggles endured in the past year by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

The newspaper brought much of the trouble on itself, as documented in a recent column by David Carr of the New York Times. As Carr notes in his opening paragraph:

“A year after announcing a plan to reorganize The Times-Picayune of New Orleans into a more digitally focused enterprise that produced a newspaper just three days a week — enraging local residents — its owners have added a new innovation: they will go back to producing a printed product every day.”

Shop Talk panelist Lisa Kernek said The Times-Picayune once had a high percentage of the market subscribing to or reading the paper, but its readership has dropped in the past year. It not only cut back on the number of days it published, but it also cut back on its reporting staff. As a result, the newspaper The Advocate expanded into New Orleans and hired several former staffers from The Times-Picayune.

Panelist Mike Murray said no matter how much The Times-Picayune backpedals, it might never again be the paper it was before.

Rich is TSPR's News Director.