Times-Picayune, the hero of New Orleans , faces a new hurricane
The newspaper that famously fended off the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina and kept alive the spirit of New Orleans is heading into a new hurricane - man-made this time .
Disaster ahead...................... New York Times
The New Orleans Times-Picayune is about to make large staff cuts - and is to stop daily publication, instead publishing three times a week , the management has confirmed on the newspaper website, http://www.nola.com.
Times-Picayune owner, Newhouse Newspapers, used a similar blueprint in Ann Arbor, Michigan , where it cut the frequency of the Ann Arbor News, instead focusing on the Web site as a primary distributor of news.
The Times-Picayune's longtime editor Jim Amoss did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Times. He is assisting in the transition before leaving, along with several of his top journalists.
The Times-Picayune, published since 1837, was bought by the Newhouse family in 1962 . It had a circulation of 270,000 before Katrina but now sells 141,000 daily. During hurricane Katrina, many staff refused to evacuate, camping out in the building. They kept the presses running and when power failed turned to the paper's website. Citizen journalists used the site to "post updates, look for loved ones and direct rescue personnel," said the Times.
After three days of online-only publication, the paper began printing again . The paper shared the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public service with The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Missouri. The Times Picayune staff was also awarded a Pulitzer for its breaking news reporting.
Jim Amoss was later to say in a speech, "For us, Katrina is and will be a defining moment of our lives, a story we'll be telling till the day we die. Being a part of the plot is both riveting and deeply unsettling. We don't yet know the end of this story ... It's the story of our lives, and we must both live and chronicle it."