A Newspaper’s Survival – Blowin’ in the Post-Katrina Wind

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By: Doug Bedell

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, Paul Farhi, The Washington Post’s media reporter, provides a lengthy discussion of whether Advance Publications made the right move nearly three years ago when it made its website, NOLA.com, the lead factor in distributing the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The print edition was reduced to three days a week.

The move, says Farhi, made the venerated Times-Picayune “an inadvertent test market for the future of journalism, at least the kind that newspapers have provided readers for centuries. Advance’s strategy has drawn the attention of publishers around the world, all of whom have the same question: Is this the way to ensure that newspapers survive in the digital age?

“The answer still isn’t clear.”

There’s much more in Farhi’s piece – it’s a mile-marker in the discussion of where print newspapers are headed.

Now, he says at the end, there are rumors of another round of newsroom layoffs at NOLA.com and the Picayune. “In New Orleans, it seems, the Times-Picayune hasn’t seen its last storm.”

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About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the owner of Resource Relations LLC in Central PA, focusing on organizational and crisis communication. He’s the community manager of SimplyFair.net, a social network on fairness. On the Web, Doug’s at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s @DougBeetle.

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