I’ve said so much about the Times-Picayune over the years that I doubt I can add anything more to the discussion. Let’s just say, what was once a moderately interesting newspaper that seemed to me a tad exotic–mostly because of my Aunt Doris, colloquially known as “Aunt Tiny”, who preferred the Picayune to that dull sack of twigs and ink known as the Clarion-Ledger–has now become shadow of its former self, in line for serious changes or brutal death.
The biggest problem: the company’s online strategy (i.e. outsourcing to the craptacular C-list template factory Advance Internet). That may have been convenient ten years ago, but it’s seriously dated now; the folks at 3800 Howard Avenue need to ditch AI and hire an 8th grader–any 8th grader will do–to install WordPress and give the Picayune a nifty, pretty web presence, ideally one with an archive of permalinks. Otherwise, the citizens of Greater New Orleans are going to be left with a museum piece of a daily whose only readable sections are its two society pages. (NB: I love the society pages. Awesomeness abounds.)
That said, the Picayune has cranked out some great stories in recent weeks. I was just catching up on my RSS feeds (which I’m always surprised to see up and running at NOLA.com), and stumbled across these sweet headlines:
Such hilarity. Daily, even.
Just for the record, I sincerely hope that the Picayune survives. Even though the stories from the inside sound awfully grim–it’s like Survivor in there, complete with mutiny, cannibalism, and poisoning the water cooler–I’d like to see the paper hang around in some form. Otherwise, we’re stuck with getting info from the alleged “evening news” and Norman freakin’ Robinson. May the great green goddess have mercy on our soulless souls.
sturtle [dot] com 
For any complaints you have about the Picayune or it’s web presence, you should thank that green goddess that you live in a city with an independent paper that may survive versus one with a Gannet controlled paper.In the last couple of years, the Lafayette paper has been reduced to a pathetic shell of nothingness as every decent staffer has been fired, the page count taken down to a single section on most days and the local presence in the paper reduced to a minor percentage.It’s bad days for newspapers and, trust me, the Picayune is way better than most of us get.
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The Picayune is really not a great way to espouse the qualities of independence. It’s always been a great embarrassment.
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Bring back Nell Nolan! I don’t care if she is dead!
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Nell ain’t dead! In fact, she just came to a part of mine two weeks ago. She’s AWESOME. For total kicks, you should call her voicemail at the Picayune. BEST OUTGOING MESSAGE EVER.
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