(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Quick — think of the last time you actually read a newspaper.
It’s been a while for most. When I was in New York last weekend, I briefly lifted a New York Times off the stack of free papers provided by our hotel, glanced at the front page, and set it back down. I can’t think of a time in the last year that I actually read past the front page of a newspaper.
Print media is struggling, which led the New Orleans Times-Picayune — the biggest newspaper in the Big Easy — to announce their plans to cut back the number of newspapers they publish every week. New Orleans will no longer have a daily newspaper, an astounding sign of the rapid and vast change of media.
Saints owner Tom Benson wrote a letter to the paper, pleading for them to remain a daily publication, but I can guarantee it will fall on deaf ears. The newspaper, as many other papers are doing, has to undergo cost-cutting, and this move is a sign that they’re really hurting.
Here’s the question I have: If the problem with the Times-Picayune is a lack of people buying newspapers to get their news a day late, why would making the reader wait two days to get the same news be a good idea? Maybe the company is just moving (slowly) to an all-web version of their paper, but why delay the inevitable if they’re not making money off the print version?
It’s sad; if a newspaper as highly-regarded as the Times-Picayune is cutting back, it probably won’t be long until other big-city newspapers suffer the same fate. But at the same time, it’s simple evolution — we live in the Internet age, and people want their news faster than the day after it happened. The world is getting smaller, and it’s a good sign that we’re seeking our news faster than we used to.
My entire professional career has been in web, and I don’t envy those old-school writers that are forced to adjust to a new era. I see writing positions getting cut from a lot of newspapers, and that’s frustrating to me. The stress of constantly worrying about job security has to be the worst part of working in that world.
The Times-Pic isn’t the first publication to announce cutbacks, and they won’t be the last. Change in media isn’t always comfortable, but with newspapers, it’s necessary.
very sad, great writers losing jobs everyday.
I wonder if this is also an effect of the economy…if it is, we may see a surge if the economy ever gets better.
really great point, I would love to see that happen. I guess we just have to wait and see what the future holds.
I do read the NY Times everyday, but the online version. I can remember when NYC had about 8 or 9 newspapers to choose from, now we have 4 (Times, Daily News, Post and Newsday). What a shame.
It certainly is.