The Times-Picayune

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The Times-Picayune
Image:Times-Picayne2-Sept-2005.jpg The September 2, 2005 front page of The Times-Picayune
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Advance Publications
Publisher	Ashton Phelps Jr.
Editor	Jim Amoss
Founded	January 25, 1837
Headquarters	3800 Howard Avenue New Orleans, LA 70125 United States
Website: nola.com

The Times-Picayune is a daily newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Established as The Picayune in 1837, the paper's initial price was, fittingly, one picayune—a Spanish coin equivalent to 6¼¢ (1/16 $US). It became The Times-Picayune after merging with its rival paper in 1914. S.I. Newhouse bought the Times-Picayune and the other remaining New Orleans daily, the States-Item, in 1962, and merged the papers in 1980. The merged paper was called The Times-Picayune/The States-Item from 1980 to 1986.^[1] Specific community editions of the newspaper are also circulated and retain the Picayune name (e.g., Gretna Picayune for nearby Gretna). The paper is owned by Advance Publications, owned by the Newhouse family.

Through the years writers like William Faulkner and O. Henry have worked for the paper. It was awarded a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for a series analyzing the threatened global fish supply; that same year staff cartoonist Walt Handelsman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. For its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, the paper received the 2005 George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting,^[2] as well as a pair of 2006 Pulitzer Prizes.

The paper's editorial stance is moderate to conservative, depending on the subject. It generally endorses Republicans in state and federal elections.^{[citation needed]} It endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2000, but endorsed no presidential candidate in 2004. In gubernatorial contests it endorsed Mike Foster and later Bobby Jindal . In the mayoral race of 2006, the Times-Picayune endorsed right-leaning Democrat Ron Forman in the primary election and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu in the runoff.

Hurricane Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina hit, dozens of the newspaper's staffers who opted not to evacuate rode out the storm in the center of the building housing the newspaper, sleeping in sleeping bags and on air mattresses. Holed up in a small, dark back room, they produced a newspaper using generator power. That edition, August 30, was never printed but was posted online as a PDF.

After deciding to evacuate the next day because of rising floodwaters and possible security threats, they set up operations in Baton Rouge, on the Louisiana State University campus. A small team of reporters and photographers volunteered to stay behind in New Orleans to report from the inside on the city's struggle, looting, and desperation. They armed themselves for security and worked out of a private residence.

The August 30, August 31, and September 1, 2005 editions were not printed, but were available as PDFs online, as was the paper's breaking news weblog. A weblog entry for August 30 written by Bruce Nolan gave the paper's first summary of the disaster:

"Hurricane Katrina struck metropolitan New Orleans on Monday with a staggering blow, far surpassing Hurricane Betsy, the landmark disaster of an earlier generation. The storm flooded huge swaths of the city, as well as Slidell on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, in a process that appeared to be spreading even as night fell."^[3]

After three days of online-only publication, the paper began printing again.

The paper published a strongly-worded open letter to President George W. Bush in its September 4 edition, criticizing him for the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and calling for the firing of FEMA chief Michael D. Brown. Brown tendered his resignation eight days later.

In a January 14, 2006 address to the American Bar Association's Communications Lawyers Forum, Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss commented on perhaps the greatest challenge that the staff faced then, and continued to face as the future of New Orleans is contemplated:

"For us, Katrina is and will be a defining moment of our lives, a story we'll be telling till the day we die. Being a part of the plot is both riveting and deeply unsettling. We don't yet know the end of this story ... It's the story of our lives, and we must both live and chronicle it."^[4]

The paper shared the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public service with The Sun Herald in similarly affected Biloxi, Mississippi. In addition, the paper's staff was awarded a Pulitzer for breaking news reporting, and former Times-Picayune editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich won the Pulitzer for his cartoons in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some of which were also featured in New Orleans Magazine.

The post-Katrina experience affected the paper's staff. On August 8, 2006, staff photographer John McCusker was arrested and hospitalized after he led police on a high-speed chase and then used his vehicle as a weapon apparently hoping that they would kill him.^[5]. McCusker was released from the hospital by mid-August, saying he could not recall the incident, which was apparently sparked by the failure to receive an insurance settlement for his damaged house. He will still face criminal charges. The episode led to the establishment of a support fund for McCusker and for other Times-Picayune staff, which collected some $200,000 in just a few days.^[6] In October, columnist Chris Rose admitted to seeking treatment for clinical depression after a year of "crying jags" and other emotionally isolating behavior.^[7]

References

Wikipedia information about The Times-Picayune This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Times-Picayune". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.