Thursday, May 24, 2012
Controversial gun ownership bill backed in House
Posted by Alex Woodward on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 5:26 PM
Earlier this month, members of the state House committee on criminal justice engaged in a heated debate over a controversial piece of legislation that would amend the state constitution to make “denial, infringement, or restriction” on the Second Amendment right to “acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms for defense of life and property” subject to “strict scrutiny” in the courts — meaning the highest standard of judicial review and the strongest legal protection typically reserved for fundamental human rights would apply to gun ownership.
It ultimately passed 9-5 through that committee. Today, Sen. Neil Riser's Senate Bill 303 passed in the full House by a 77-22 vote, and it’ll head to the state Senate for final review before appearing on ballots this November.
After the news: Today at The Times-Picayune
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 5:05 PM
“Newhouse Newspapers, which owns The Times-Picayune, will apparently be working off a blueprint the company used in Ann Arbor, Mich., where it reduced the frequency of the Ann Arbor News, emphasized the Web site as a primary distributor of news and in the process instituted wholesale layoffs to cut costs.”
Five paragraphs in, the story mentioned that longtime editor Jim Amoss and his two managing editors, Peter Kovacs and Dan Shea, were among those leaving. Publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. had already announced his retirement in March.
Carr’s report wasn’t exactly right about the “blueprint”: In Michigan, Newhouse did not reduce the frequency of the Ann Arbor News — it closed the paper, fired most of the staff, then created a news-flavored website called AnnArbor.com, which puts out a perfunctory print edition twice a week.
The New York Times report came after a tumultuous week in the T-P newsroom. Speculation about the paper’s future had been rampant after incoming publisher Ricky Mathews had come to New Orleans the week before, moved into the Windsor Court Hotel, and held meetings with some — but not all —Times-Picayune executives off the building's premises. All week, speculation had ranged from shuttering bureaus and eliminating some managerial positions (the best case scenario) to “Armageddon” — the closing of New Orleans’ paper of record, with mass firings, a few people invited to reapply for their jobs and news delivered solely through Advance Publications’ online arm, NOLA.com.
Suitcases for foster kids
Posted by Kandace Graves on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 4:34 PM
- Photo by Oleg Kozlov
Four area courts are collecting new or slightly used suitcases, duffle bags and backpacks for children moving through the foster care system.
Luggage donations can be dropped off at the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal (410 Royal St.), marked to the attention of Judge Max Tobias. (The duffle bags and backpacks should be large.)
Judges for the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, the 25th Judicial District Court for Plaquemines Parish and the 34th Judicial District Court for St. Bernard Parish came up with the program after observing that children moving into new foster homes generally have to carry their belongings in garbage bags, which the judges say is demeaning. Some of the children remain in the foster care system for years and move several times.
“It is bad enough for a child to leave everything he or she knows and loves, but then to have all their belongings placed into a trashbag places a feeling of worthlessness on top of it all,” 4th Circuit Chief Judge Charles R. Jones said in a news release announcing the program.
Organizers of Suitcases for Foster Kids hope individuals, community groups, businesses and service organizations will join the effort. The luggage will be distributed to courts in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, which will get the bags into the hands of foster children who need them. Any extras will be distributed to foster kids elsewhere in Louisiana.
For more information, email suitcasesforfosterkids@yahoo.com or call Tobias at 412-6072.
Late night burritos in the Bywater
Posted by Ian McNulty on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 4:00 PM
- Ian McNulty
- A green burrito from the Green Burrito.
There have been a lot of changes to the eatery options in the Bywater lately, and one of the more recent additions is staking out some late-night turf.
The crew at the Green Burrito (3046 St. Claude Ave., 715-0608) sling their menu of burritos, tacos and quesadillas from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Pick your tortilla configuration and they fill it with steak, chicken or grilled fish, plus all-vegetable and vegan renditions.
The Advocate publisher: "We will look for ways to increase our presence in the New Orleans area"
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 2:47 PM
The Advocate, which, so far as we know, will continue to be a daily newspaper serving Baton Rouge, has released a statement about the massacre over at The Times-Picayune (the St. Gregory VII Day Eve Massacre? May 24 is apparently one of very few days without its own saint). You can read the whole thing here, but I'd like to highlight the following paragraph:
At the same time, we will look for ways to increase our presence in the New Orleans area and be ready to take advantage of any opportunities that might come along.
It will be interesting to find out what that means, if anything.
Does The Advocate plan to expand farther into Greater New Orleans or, maybe, is its publisher anticipating cuts to the T-P's coverage of the capital (and the Capitol)? Perhaps a content-sharing agreement like the one Tennessee's four largest newspapers put together in 2009? I like The Advocate — I read The Advocate often — but I hope that's not what's going to happen.
Mayor Landrieu: Times-Picayune is "part of our identity"
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 1:27 PM
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who once worked as a paper boy for The Times-Picayune, offers his thoughts on today's news, in the following press release:
STATEMENT FROM MAYOR LANDRIEU ON CHANGES AT THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
NEW ORLEANS, LA—Mayor Mitch Landrieu released the following statement today upon learning of major changes coming to the region’s daily newspaper:
“For 175 years, The Times-Picayune has been a mainstay in this region. Through wars and floods, the ‘Aints and a Saints Super Bowl victory, the TP has been and remains an integral part of our daily routine and our culture. It is a part of our identity.
“Above all else, for years, The Times-Picayune has had some of the finest local journalists and photojournalists in the country. Even in our darkest days after Hurricane Katrina, these men and women worked around the clock to share our story with the rest of the world.
(More after the jump)
Alabama papers also moving to three days a week
Posted by Alex Woodward on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 12:05 PM
The "digitally focused" Alabama Media Group will incorporate 'bama papers The Birmingham News, The Press-Register and The Huntsville Times and website al.com, with plans to launch in the fall as a three-days-a-week publishing schedule and layoffs, according to a release on al.com.
Of course, as Charles Maldonado notes, the details are irrelevant to Advance and Newhouse News. Not mentioned: how many reporters and staffers will be laid off, or how a downsized paper (which will have "enhanced" features and "more focus on local news") can offer any of that, when more than half a week of news is no longer in the printed record but online only in a state with not-so-dense Internet access, or really anything other than introducing your new fearless leaders.
The change is designed to reshape how Alabama's leading media companies deliver award-winning local news, sports and entertainment coverage in an increasingly digital age. The Alabama Media Group will dramatically expand its news-gathering efforts around the clock, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week. The newspapers will be home-delivered and sold in stores on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only.
Sound familiar? The Advance publishing group also runs The Times-Picayune and announced just hours before that the T-P will also experience the publishing changes and a "reduction in the overall size of the workforce," under the "NOLA Media Group."
Advance Central Services Alabama will handle distribution and is headed by Birmingham News publisher Pam Siddall who said, "We have seen such dramatic growth at al.com and have such strength and familiarity with our printed newspapers, the time is now for these changes. ... We have to be bold when it comes to positioning ourselves for the future.” Both the Alabama Media Group and Advance Central Services are under the Advance Publications Inc. umbrella.
Alabama Media Group president Cindy Martin said, “There are always painful choices when you begin a process that will lead to people losing their jobs. ... But at the same time, we must position ourselves to be sustainable businesses going forward. The new companies we launch in the fall, we believe, not only achieve that, but will serve our growing audiences and advertisers better than ever before."
More with less
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:25 AM
In light of today's announcement from the newly created NOLA Media Group, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to this 2008 column by the American Journalism Review's Rem Rieder, slamming the dishonest language of newspaper layoff press releases, which often appear as a "news item" in the business pages.
Inevitably, the publisher accompanies news of the bloodletting with the solemn declaration that the cutbacks in no way suggest that the paper is backing off from its commitment to world-class public service journalism.There's not really a problem, you see. The paper is going to do more with less.
This nonsense is repeated so often that it's amazing anyone can still say it with a straight face. Certainly no one believes it.
(Continued after the jump)
Times-Picayune: Ashton Phelps memo to staff
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:01 AM
The new plan, which will be executed under the name "NOLA Media Group," will leave New Orleans without a daily newspaper. The original Picayune originally published in 1837.
A memo under the name of outgoing publisher Ashton Phelps went out to staff this morning stating "Many current employees of The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com will have the opportunity to grow with the new organizations, but the need to reallocate resources to accelerate the digital growth of NOLA Media Group will necessitate a reduction in the size of the workforce."
The result, according to the memo, will be "a more robust newspaper." (Insert hollow laugh here.)
Phelps, whose family has steered the T-P for five generations, is being replaced by Ricky Mathews, publisher of the Mobile Press-Register and president of Advance Alabama/Mississippi.
AnnouncementSent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:21 AM
To all employees:
We wanted to make you aware of a news story that will be posted on NOLA.com regarding the future of the company, and to alert you that we will be scheduling meetings to discuss it with groups of employees today.
Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, May 24, 2012 at 2:40 AM
David Carr's report comes after a tumultuous week in the T-P newsroom, which began after incoming publisher Ricky Mathews came to New Orleans last week and held meetings with some — but not all — Times-Picayune executives off the building's premises.
Multiple sources have told Gambit that editor Jim Amoss and city editor Gordon Russell were in the meetings, as were sports editor Doug Tatum and features editor Mark Lorando. Managing editors Peter Kovacs and Dan Shea, the No. 2 lieutenants to Amoss, were excluded.
As for what the newsroom itself will become, the outlook is still unclear, though everyone expects significant layoffs to occur soon. As Carr wrote, "the newspaper will likely cease to exist as a daily newspaper, and will publish two or three times a week."
A Gambit source whose timeline of the reductions dovetails closely with Carr's report said in an email earlier this week that it was expected "the staff will immediately be whacked by at least a third (from 150 to 100 or fewer reporters). Top brass will be fired and reporters who remain aboard will take sharp salary cuts and be expected to start blogging through the day [for affiliated website NOLA.com]."
Carr's report says that the restructuring will mean longtime editors Kovacs and Shea will be leaving the paper, which Gambit also confirmed earlier this week with multiple sources. Carr says Amoss will be leaving as well, which Gambit was not able to confirm independently.
Reached by phone Wednesday before The New York Times story broke, Russell refused all comment about the paper, the future of the paper or his role there.
The level of disrespect for T-P employees by upper management was the main topic of conversation tonight. All employees with whom Gambit spoke — even longtime senior writers and editors — said they learned of their fates from The New York Times report.
"My supervisor didn't even fucking know," said one reporter. "My supervisor."
"I had to find this out by Twitter," said another. "Do I go in to the office tomorrow? Do I even have a job to go in to tomorrow? I don't know. No one has called me. No one has said anything."
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
tp liberal arrogance, parochialism in reporting (hello, sports dept) has finally done it in. The…
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Re: After the news: Today at The Times-Picayune
you forgot about the pulitzer in 1997 and the two times the paper was a…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
This is really tragic. T-P used to have the highest level of readership in the…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
Terrible news as yet another local paper takes it where the sun don't shine by…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
WAIT... Stop the presses!!!
Isn't our "new" New Orleans supposed to be whiter, more…- on May 24, 2012
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
Goddamn it!!!! I hate the new template design and now to hear that the great…
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Re: Times-Picayune: Ashton Phelps memo to staff
For those of us who subscribe for home delivery, will the monthly subscription price go…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
FOLLOWING THE MONEY will be your answer to why the Times Picayune did what they…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
I will miss the Times-Picayune, which I read as a kid and a graduate student…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
I have been delivering the paper for almost 20 years. My customers have never missed…
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Re: Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge
Shocking and amazing that something like this can really happen!! The almighty dollar seems to…
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As I posted earlier on NOLA.com, I'm not very proud today that…
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