Newsdesigner.com | E&P on Times-Picayune Rumors*

E&P on Times-Picayune Rumors*

11:00 AM, September 2, 2005

Editor & Publisher today addresses the rumors of the Times-Picayune shutting down that sprang up after yesterday's Times-Picayune press release and a posting on the NABJ listserv.

Steve Newhouse, son of Advance Publications President Donald Newhouse and a company executive, told E&P the press release was meant to offer security, not hints at a bleak future.

"That was to reassure people," said Newhouse, who oversees Advance.net, among other responsibilities. "We have just resumed publication [of the Times-Picayune], we are going to keep growing."

When asked if the newspaper would suffer major cutbacks or permanent reductions beyond October, he declined to offer assurances.

"I have no idea what will happen beyond the very short term," he said. "We can barely think beyond 10 minutes from now. We are dealing with what is happening this second. For us, the future is tomorrow." ...

When asked to comment on rumors that the Times-Picayune would be cutting back or even folding as a result of the hurricane, Steve Newhouse said, "I can't control rumors. No one knows what the future is going to bring, we don't even know the status of our printing presses until we get to them. We can only say what we know at the moment."

Update 12:21 PDT: This statement from Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. was just posted at Romenesko:

An NABJ forum appears to be the source of a rumor that The Times-Picayune is going to cease publication. "We just resumed publication so thoughts on ceasing publication at some later date are ridiculous," said Ashton Phelps Jr., the paper's publisher. "The Times-Picayune will continue to publish. Period."

>'Times-Picayune' Back In Print, But For How Long? [Editor & Publisher]

Comments

Heads up: After you hit "post" things may be slow and you may get an error. Most likely, your comment did post. Apologies. I'm looking for a fix.

The only other time I have been this proud of a newspaper was the New York Post's strike in the early 1990's.

Yes, they are facing challenges. But they are also facing opportunities. Incredible opportunities.

The community they serve is scattered over many states and it will be a year before it even starts to reform in the area, if ever.

SO WHAT?!!! There is still a community, it still has interests both in the area and in its bonds to each other. Bonds forged both before and after Katrina.

And bonds with America and the rest of the world.

Almost all conversations I have heard in the past few days have been either how to help that community, or how to take advantage of the opportunities that the rebuilding will offer.

A newspaper is a business, a voice and a responsibility.

The Times-Picayune has a responsibility to the public it serves, to keep them informed, wherever their physical location.

It has been a voice for that community, and it has spoke for them for a very long time. If that voice is silenced, then who will speak for them? For the ones who survived, and for the ones who died.

More specifically, however, the Times-Picayune is a business, and there are plenty of advertisers who want to get a piece of those billions of reconstruction money.

Their advertising base is incredible, for months, people all over the world will be listening in to see what happens next.

If the Times-Picayune can't turn THAT into a worldwide newspaper/web franchise, I will bet there are thousands of venture capitalists that are willing to give it a go.

A phoenix is reborn from the ashes of it's own death. I am not certain what is reborn from the waters of a lake, but I do know that most animals gestate in water.

Something new is starting to grow in New Orleans, amid the ashes and death, and the Times-Picayune will be part of that, whatever Advance Publications decides.

Don't worry about the Times-Picayune. Five years from now, it will be a much larger franchise.

Posted by: Randy Gordon at September 3, 2005 9:58 PM

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