<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  One of the greatest sustained performances in the history of American newspapers was the one put on by the New Orleans Times-Picayune during, and in the immediate aftermath, of Hurricane Katrina. Operating, I am told, literally at some points by candlelight, the staff managed to the point of exhaustion to keep the drowning city informed of what was going on in and around it. I mention this because, today, it was announced that the Times-Picayune will cut its print editions back to three days a week because, as we know, everyone who matters in New Orleans is fully wired into the Internet. (In the Ninth Ward in particular, laptops grow on trees.) Naturally, this will require a third of the staff to get thrown out of work. Is this because the newspaper is unprofitable? Of course not. The staff found out about all of this by reading about it in the New York Times. Classy. I know the Intertoobz are the future \u2014 teach them well and let them lead the way \u2014 but this just sucks pond water in all kinds of ways. Of all the cities in the country, New Orleans should be the one most aware that a huge number of Americans don&amp;#039;t have access to the Toobz. (Another thing Newt Gingrich was right about, by the way.) Gutting a profitable newspaper in a city like New Orleans is the functional equivalent in an information sense of lining up to piss into a reservoir. The main reason that newspapers are failing in this country is that they are being set up to fail by publishers who think like hedge fund cowboys, and by editors who think like corporate officers. If there&amp;#039;s another major institution in this country that hasn&amp;#039;t yet gone out of its way to fail the people of New Orleans, I don&amp;#039;t know what it is. Elsewhere in the dying industry, I do not approve at all of the state of New York&amp;#039;s attempt to regulate newspaper Comments sections. I&amp;#039;d rather the newpapers themselves face the fact that most of the anonymous ones are sewers and either regulate the sections themselves, or decide that we&amp;#039;d all be better off without them. (Thanks to Top Commenter Pat for reminding me that I dropped a crucial modifier from the above) (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14194/times-picayune-cutbacks-9118943/>