It all started one year ago today …

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… when the Times-Picayune announced it was moving to a “digital first” strategy and cutting its print edition back to three days a week after being outed the night before by the New York Times.

To mark the occasion, The Lens NOLA features a report by Eve Troeh and Bevil Knapp on the cultural changes the ensuing developments have had on New Orleans news consumers, and Poynter.org’s Andrew Beaujon describes how a multitude of alternative news outlets have benefited from the Picayune’s cutbacks.

Please observe a moment of silence for the destruction of a great institution, then click the links.


More Picayune alumni and staff hired by The Advocate

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The Advocate announced today that it has hired former Picayune political columnist Stephanie Grace and current Picayune reporter Laura Maggi.

Grace will write three columns a week for the editorial page. Maggi will serve as assistant bureau chief, online editor and reporter for the New Orleans edition. Both are veteran award-winning journalists.

Meanwhile, on the business side, long-time T-P classified advertising manager Yvette DeLucky has left the Picayune and will now be working for The Advocate.

Rumors persist that more defections are in the offing.


Cursed curation

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I can’t print what I say every time I see examples like the ones below of the job the “curators”* of the Times-Picayune are doing, but you’ll get the idea:

"Area grammer school students will have parts in production"

Continuation headline, Times-Picayune, April 7, 2013, Page 13H3-13H4

 

"Good guys with guns stop tragedy"

Headline added to a Letter to the Editor, Times-Picayune, May 17, 2013, Page B-8

These are just a couple of examples. There are many others.

*In his landmark Columbia Journalism Review article, The battle of New Orleans, Ryan Chittum told us what Times-Picayune “curators” do:

… the newsroom would be partly repopulated by younger digital natives who could be paid much less—as NOLA Media Group reporters, not Times-Picayune reporters. They would be told to write search-engine-optimized posts for the Web multiple times a day, and not to worry about print deadlines. Editing would be de-emphasized. “Curators” on the newspaper side would pick stories off of NOLA.com and put together a print newspaper on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.


What a daily Picayune will cost you now

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As a refresher:

  • We used to be able to get home delivery of the Times-Picayune seven days a week for $18.95 per month.
  • Then they cut back to three days a week, for $16.95 per month
  • Then they threw in that “free” Saints thingie on Monday mornings after Bless You Boys games
  • Then they started pushing out the Sunday paper on Saturdays, calling it the Early Edition of the Sunday Times-Picayune and charging an extra $2.00 for it, but you had to go down to the corner to buy it, ’cause they wouldn’t deliver it to your door.

With me so far?

Now, here comes TPStreet, a tabloid that will publish on the three “off days” for 75 cents, available only at newsstands.

Yippee! We now have a seven-day-a-week Picayune again!

But, uh, what will it cost?

The answer is (($16.95 x 12) + ($2.00 x 52) + ($0.75 x 3 x 52))/12

Got that?

No?

Okay then, the answer is $35.37 per month, and you’ll have to drive to the grocery to get it four days a week.

Happy now?

What’s that? You won’t buy the Sunday paper on Saturday and Sunday?

How disloyal of you!

But in that case the answer (for a six-day-a-week paper) is $26.7o per month, plus gas money.

Satisfied?


Duelling interviews to air on WUPL-TV

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Dan Shea and Jim Amoss are scheduled to appear on consecutive airings of WUPL-TV’s The 504 this week, according to the show’s Facebook page.

Shea, the new general manager of The Advocate and former managing editor of the Times-Picayune, will appear Thursday, May 16. Amoss, editor of the Picayune and NOLA Media Group vice president of content, will appear Friday, May 17. The half-hour show airs at 9:00 PM.

According to Gambit’s Kevin Allman, Amoss declined the opportunity to appear on the same show with Shea:

[The 504 host Melanie] Hebert dismissed rumors that the two-night booking was due to the fact the men did not want to appear together on one panel. The Advocate editors were booked first, she told Gambit tonight, while Amoss was invited to come on with the option of joining the Thursday show or making a separate appearance on Friday. “Jim said he would prefer to come on separately,” Hebert said.

Stay tuned!

Update: The interviews can be viewed online. Dan Shea, for The Advocate, is here, and Jim Amoss, for NOLA Media Group, is here.


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