Today's announcement of big changes at the venerable New Orleans Times-Picayune -- cutting 1/3 of its staff and printing just three days a week -- is the latest in a long slide for metropolitan newspapers that once tried to be all things to all people. The industry downsizing has cost thousands of jobs and left a void in news coverage.
Yet what matters is journalism, and that's no longer synonymous with newspapers. In fact, the demise of big newspapers will disrupt a broken industry, allow new entrants to thrive and, hopefully, lead to better reporting and writing.
I used to have ink running through my veins, so this has been a big adjustment. I started my first newspaper in elementary school and eventually worked to become a foreign correspondent. When I lived in Asia I would purposely route return trips to the U.S. through LAX so I could buy a print metro edition of the Los Angeles Times -- then America's best newspaper. I still get the Sunday New York Times in print and have paid subscriptions to many periodicals.
Yet, the downfall of the metro newspapers, which for decades held quasi-monopolies in their areas, exposes major flaws and uneven quality. When he was editor of The New York Times, Howell Raines realized that it needed to be faster (have a "higher metabolism," in his phrase) and more rigorous in order to be truly national. His missteps (e.g., Jayson Blair) caused his downfall, the pace of change slowed and, as a result, the paper is still not as good as it could be.