The Ongoing Death of Dead Tree Newspapers
Via Media of Birmingham: Birmingham News, other Advance papers to cut jobs, print editions
Wednesday night, unconfirmed reports popped up suggesting its New Orleans’ paper, the Times-Picayune, would undergo severe cuts and reduce to three times a week publication. This morning, it became a reality, as staffers found out — not from their own supervisors — but from Web and TV reports.
New Orleans will reform under two companies, one handling digital operations and one handling print operations. The paper will run Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays starting in the fall, instead of seven days a week.
This morning, staff members at the Birmingham News found out from publisher Pam Siddall that they too would roll out the same plan for all Alabama Advance papers, including the Huntsville Times and (Mobile) Press-Register.
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All three papers will run on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with special editions (such as Thanksgiving) as needed. Sunday papers will remain $2, and Wednesday and Friday papers will remain $1. Subscribers will also be given access to the e-edition.
There don’t appear to be any thumbs to put in the dikes. This is just the starting trickle of what will become a flood.
I’ll miss the Monday AM Mobile and New Orleans papers, so much to learn from reading the shipping, police, fire and public health reports and factoids jammed into the pages leading to the classifieds. A sure fire way to get the frontal lobes working after the weekend.
Steven, thanks for the link to my post on Media of Birmingham!
I have worked at community newspapers. Nothing as prestigious as the Times Picayune.
The loss of printing deadlines, could, I think, make reporting better. If newspapers can go mobile. Used to be getting the damned thing into print was a complicated process, entailing what are now extraneous workers.
But what will I do for lining Lucy’s and Charles’s cages?
$2!! I think I see the problem.