INDReporter

Times-Pic's Amoss: 'adapt, or fade away'

by Heather Miller

'Readers no longer want today's news tomorrow. They want it now. And they want a voice in how stories are told.'

A Wednesday column published by Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss offers a lengthy explanation of the looming changes ahead for New Orleans' soon-to-be non-daily newspaper.

The somber, yet poignant column from Amoss comes on the heels of an announcement from The Times-Pic's parent company that New Orleans' only daily newspaper will cut back its print edition to three days a week this fall and in turn lay off a third of its staff.

Recalling the days and weeks he and other T-P staffers spent in the newsroom following Hurricane Katrina, Amoss notes that the nonstop updates and Pulitzer-winning posts from The Times-Picayune never made it to a printing press:

They were vital pieces of digital journalism ... destined for the computer screens of hundreds of thousands of displaced residents scattered across America and others around the globe worried about the fate of our world-class city.

I didn't realize at that moment that I was witnessing the beginning of our part of the revolution that is transforming our business. Nor, I imagine, did the reporters and editors in that dim room.

Read the full column here.