Times-Picayune (NO) will stop daily publication in fall

"I read the news today oh boy"

     The Times-Picayune, New Orleans' only daily newspaper, will publish a printed paper only three days a week beginning this fall (2012).  The paper, which has been published daily since before the Civil War will continue to "publish" a daily edition everyday on line.
     This is shocking but not unexpected news.  For those of us who anchor our morning routine around the plop of the paper in our front yard each and every morning it has been painful to watch a New Orleans tradition wither away, shrinking pica by pica as advertising has slowly migrated to other, newer media draining the paper of its financial life's blood.
     Everyone in the city has a connection with the Times-Picayune and here's mine:  I used to write for it.  For 19 years as a freelancer I contributed columns on where to hike, bike and paddle within a reasonable drive of the city.  And some fitness columns.  The kind of thing this blog is about.
     I was not the only one with an outdoor orientation whose words appeared in the paper. Others would write about hunting and fishing and there was coverage of outdoorsy things in the paper's magazine section.  In recent years beat reporters would cover the painfully slow governmental process of developing bike trails, recreational areas and the establishment of new refuges and parks.
     I hope the content of the printed paper will thrive in a new home on line attracting new readers and new advertisers. I can only hope the online versions of the T-P in the fall will be better than what is offered daily now-the horrible nola.com.
     Oops, this is starting to sound like an obit and it's not.  The Times-Picayune is still here and even when seven days of "dead trees and ink," as a younger friend tactlessly refers to print journalism, is cut to three, a Times-Picayune will still be a daily paper.  Just "published"  in a different form-on line.  Dead trees to pixels.  I'll bet the trees are happy.

-30-