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Long-Term Coveragehere. It is true that not everyone whoused to live in New Orleans has comeback. What is surprising, and certainlyunder the radar of the national press,is the number of people and businessescoming here who were not NewOrleanians before Katrina. The city islearning that it doesn’t have to be exactlythe same as it was to succeed. Inmany ways, specifically in the realmsof public education and the criminaljustice system, it will be a lot better offif it never reverts to what it was.Overcoming the Fear ofChangeAll of this change going on around usoffers a parallel lesson for print journalists,many of whom are shaken by theprospect of transforming their craft foran online audience. And while it’s notuncommon to hear talk in newsroomsof how it’s a good time to get out ofthe newspaper business, I’d argue thatthere never has been a more excitingtime to be in it.To figure out what’s holding us back,look no further than fear. Journalistsencourage change in the world butdon’t change themselves. We’re muchmore prone to pondering our fates withthe same cynical energy we apply tojust about everything we evaluate. Itis somewhat amazing that journalistswho, by and large, have great confidencein their individual talents holdsuch little faith in our ability to achievecollective success.A change in attitude is needed, witha change in strategy close behind.If innovation and vision, versatilityand wide-open creativity are seen asstrengths—and if the opportunity todraw your newspaper closer than everto your community is relished—thenstaying in the news business is a goodplace to be. And as we continue to figureout the changing role of newspapersin our communities, Katrina offersan undeniable truth: Our customersmight not all want to consume thenews in precisely the same way, butthey all want the news. And more thanany other entity, they trust their localnewspaper to give them the informationthey want and need.Thinking LocalOur Web site came of age during Katrinafor a simple reason—it had to. Virtuallyall of the New Orleans area had evacuatedfor the hurricane, and the failedfederal levees prevented hundreds ofthousands of residents from comingback, some for several weeks. A Website that averaged 800,000 page viewsper day pre-Katrina exploded to 30million per day in the weeks after thestorm. Even now, two years later, itsdaily audience is double what it wasbefore the hurricane.People signed on from whereverthey were, devouring what we werereporting and adding information oftheir own in forums that sprang upalmost instantly. They asked for helpfinding family members. They postedupdates on what they knew about theirneighborhoods, specific down to theblock. Think about it. The newspaperbecame a true forum, not just in thestories we posted as quickly as wecould, but also in those we collectedfrom our readers.We would be foolish to ever end thatkind of reader engagement. Indeed, wesaw it as the blessing that it is. Imagine atown square on every computer, whereeveryone can see what everyone else issaying, and they can all show up wheneverthey want. And it is the newspaperhosting a community discussion thatnever ends, while publishing its owninformation and welcoming what itsreaders have to contribute. It’s a relationshipwe’d never had before, butit’s one our readers craved. (We alwaystold our readers it’s their newspaper,but how many newspapers really havelived up to that claim?)Yet, even with the changes in howour news gets delivered, The Times-Picayune is not a completely differentplace than it was before the storm. Itwould have made no sense to start over.The paper’s penetration ranked first inthe nation among major dailies longbefore Katrina, owed mainly to a sustainedand substantial commitment toproviding readers with a local newspaper—fromthe front page to the metrosection and high-quality communitynews sections—tailored to the placesthey live. When our readers ask us forsomething, we strive to find a way to sayyes, instead of an overintellectualizedjournalistic excuse to say no.So when a newspaper announces arenewed commitment to local news,I always ask one question: Who isdefining “local?” Is it the readers orthe newsroom? To remain the primarysource of news in your market, thinkhard about the answer.As strange as this might sound,given what we’ve been through ournewspaper is fortunate in many respects.The job we were doing beforethe flood was as important as whatwe did during the disaster in bringingour readership back quickly. Our printcirculation went from 260,000 to zeroin a day. To see it already back over200,000 in a recovering market tellsus we had a solid foundation. And thathas allowed us to pursue our onlinegoals from a starting point of successrather than panic. We also are privatelyheld, benefiting from ownership thatfocuses on long-term goals instead offlavor-of-the-month fixes. We do notunderestimate that advantage.As our online work continues toexpand, we are not losing sight of thephilosophy that has driven our success.We want to be as local online aswe are in the paper, and we intend toplay to our primary strength—usingthe army of journalists we have workingacross the New Orleans area togather local news and break it whenwe get it. From a murder to a mayoralpress conference to a traffic-snarlingcar wreck at the corner of MagazineStreet and Napoleon Avenue, we wantit. Mainly, we want our readers to knowif there’s any news agency in townmost likely to be on the scene, theirbest bet is The Times-Picayune. Andwe want them to believe this whetherthey live in New Orleans or 40 milesaway in Covington, on the north shoreof Lake Pontchartrain.We want to keep it short, and wewant it online quickly. We don’t wantour reporters to labor over a finishedproduct for tomorrow’s paper, wewant whatever they can tell us in fiveminutes. If we get more details, we’llupdate. To that end, we’ve made aNieman Reports / Fall 2007 35