Jul 23, 201210:26 AM
The Editor's Room
Weekly Commentary with New Orleans Magazine’s Errol Laborde
The Editor's Room Editors
The Times-Picayune Fiasco: The Newhouses vs. the Saints
On Sunday, Sept. 30, the Saints will play the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay. It will be a huge game. The next morning, Oct. 1, the folks in Green Bay, a much less populated town than New Orleans, will be able to pore over the statisitcs and read the recaps in their morning paper, The Press Gazette. The fans in 29 of the other 30 NFL markets will be able to do the same with their daily newspaper. The only exception will be in New Orleans where fans will face the first day when the Newhouses, in their skewed vision of the future, will deny us newspaper coverage. As of that day, the Saints will be in the only major league market without a daily newspaper.
Meanwhile the Newhouses can read about the Giants and the Jets and, if they give a damn, the Saints, in The New York Times, the New York Post or any of several greater New York and New Jersey dailies.
What the Newhouses hope is that on that day New Orleans sports fans will rush to their iThings and read about the game online. What they are overlooking is that there will be many other web-based options, including TV sites (which will have the advantage of professional video), for the fans to go to. The geniuses in Jersey will have transformed what was once the prime local news source into another app button to push.
And in case you didn't hear, this is supposed to be good for us.
Errol Laborde holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of New Orleans and is the editor in chief of Renaissance Publishing. In that capacity he serves as editor/associate publisher of 
Reader Comments:
Very well stated.
Kevin Kelly
I'm hoping we all boycott NoLa.com & anything Newhouse based including our beloved Times Picayune.The only way to get our message across to the Newhouses in through their bank accounts.
There should be a massive cancellation of subscriptions to the TP. The carpetbaggers that own the TP would have a loss of revenue and may decide it is financially expedient to sell at a loss.
Would The Morning Advocate have an interest?
I've already cancelled my T-P subscription and stopped going to nola.com (which is no great loss, as it's gone from a poor website to ghastly since the Great Announcement was made). Next step is to start writing to the advertisers, asking them to move their dollars to more worthy outlets - I've noticed Fox 8 has jumped right on board that as well.
Too bad New Orleans is not a Time Warner Cable market (owned by Newhouse)! If it was the boycot on "Everything Newhouse" would have a more profound impact upon their pockets!
Add your comment: