Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Times Picayune

My grandpa never drove from his house in St. Rose to the French Quarter on I-10. It was Airline Highway and Tulane Avenue all the way. Sure it took longer, there were a thousand red lights and urban blight on all sides, but that's how he liked to go, and if you were with him, that's how he was gonna take ya. That's how most New Orleanians feel about The Times-Picayune. It's a comforting presence that's been around since before ya mama was born. It's changed over the years, but you still got what you needed. As a journalist and native New Orleanian, my feelings are mixed about the T-P's decision to only publish a printed paper three days a week. That's like telling someone they can only have their morning coffee three days a week or only turn on the TV three times a week. It's a familiar link to the past (How many of yall go straight for the obits?), the present (What's da weather gonna be?), and the future (who da Saints playin' next week?). On one hand, this is the direction the news industry is heading. Eventually the line between internet, tv, radio and newspaper will be non-existent. The TP's move was partly because of this, and but mostly, I assume, because the industry is hurting for ad revenue so badly. Our culture as a whole is evolving toward getting information at the fastest pace possible. Reading a printed out newspaper with yesterday's news will eventually go the way of the telegraph and 8-tracks. You'll tell your grandkids, "Back in my day, we had the internet printed on paper. We called it a newspaper!" I know the daily newspaper in most parts of the country don't hold the sentimentality that the TP does. It is the exception, rather than the rule. Reading news on the printed page is a visceral experience as well as an intellectual one. It has a feeling of permanence. TV & Radio say it and its gone, and web pages are updated, but when it's in da paper, its dere fuh good. How many of yall saved the front page from Katrina or the Saints' Super Bowl victory? It's comforting to sit at the breakfast table, with the paper folded next to your plate reading about the latest political scandal. Sure you can do that with a laptop or iPad, but do you really want to shove one of those things under your arm as you head into the terlet? I think the fine folks at the TP know this, and that's why they've cut the paper down to three days. It would've been much more cost-effective to cut it out altogether and opt for an online-only newspaper. However, that would've prompted lawsuits, protests, and probably even a riot! That's why the Times-Picayune will not stop publishing a newspaper any time soon. We New Orleanians like our traditions, and we'll change 'em at our own pace.