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Katrina’s Aftermathfundamental change in how we equipour reporters. We are issuing laptopsand wireless cards to every reporteron staff so that anyone can file a newsupdate from anywhere at any time. It’s alearning process, but we’re not going towait until we perfect it to launch it—it’sunderway. Our journalists are alreadytrained to do journalism; learning howto post to a blog page is as simple assending an e-mail.The Web and the NewsroomThere also are a couple of importantthings we’re not going to do. First andforemost, we’re not going to createa fancy Internet bureaucracy in thenewsroom. The Times-Picayune hasalways taken a very lean approach tomanagement. It’s one of the things thatmakes it a fun place to work. There isno Internet czar. There is no separateonline staff, and we’re not going tocreate one just because it sounds greatat a journalism convention. Quitefrankly, we do not want to give all ofour journalists a reason not to evolve:We’re going to evolve together. It willhappen not because a guru demandsit, but because self-preservation provesa powerful motivator.This trend we’re seeing is not a fad;this is what we are becoming. Our businessis changing, and we don’t want tolook up in 10 years and be stuck witha bureaucracy we no longer need. Sowe’re skipping that step. Sure, we’regoing to make some mistakes in themeantime, but we’ll learn from them.And as we tackle new endeavors, acquirenew skills, and learn how to sellour journalism in every conceivableway, you know what else will happen?We’ll have some fun.The other thing we’re not going todo is overthink the Internet. The endlessintellectual wrangling that causesnewspapers to move at a glacial paceshould not preside over our onlineworld. Stop worrying and get going,because nothing gets us there likegetting started.I think about that as I recall thefrustration that came with rebuildingour house. I wanted to preserve itsbest features, its character, yet makeit better than it was before. Thingsdidn’t always go at the pace I wanted,people didn’t always do things howI wished they would. Sometimes itseemed like we weren’t ever going toget back home.I learned the value of persistent patience,of knowing that I had to keeppushing to move the project a littlemore forward than it was yesterday. Itwas an incredible challenge but, oneday, we had a brand-new house. Someparts of it are restored exactly like theywere, others are gone forever. But therenovation was a success. This differenthouse is a lot nicer and strongerthan it used to be. I like to think ournewspaper is, too. David Meeks is city editor of TheTimes-Picayune in New Orleans.When the newspaper evacuatedduring massive flooding in the aftermathof Hurricane Katrina, Meeks,then the sports editor, remained inthe city for six weeks and led a teamof volunteers covering the story,working from makeshift news bureausout of colleagues’ dry homes.He and his daughter, Juliet, movedback into their rebuilt home inMarch.A N ESSAY IN WOR DS A ND PHOTOGRAPHSTelling a Tough Story in Your Own BackyardBy Bill HaberHurricane Katrina is the mostdifficult assignment of myalmost 29-year career withThe Associated Press. Three days afterthe storm flooded the city, it becamevery clear that this would essentiallybe the last story I would cover. Therehave been only a couple of brief assignmentsaway from Southern Louisianasince August 29, 2005, and there isno reason to believe this will be anydifferent in the future. This story willbe years in the telling.Telling this story has been a challengefrom the start. Even though specificchallenges it poses have evolved,they never seem to lessen. Logistics,once overwhelming, are now just plaindifficult at times, as all of us deal withcompeting pressures of fixing whatis broken in our personal lives 1 andcontinuing to convey to others whatdoesn’t work in theirs. Usually in ourbusiness, we deal with only one ofthese dimensions at a time, given thatour assignments about disaster usuallytake us far from home. And even if weface danger and discomfort, those welove are safe and cared for, so we’reable to approach what we do each1Three days after the floodwaters, family members were evacuated, some to Texas,others to Oregon and Mississippi. This July was the first since Hurricane Katrina thatall of Haber’s family members were home in New Orleans. Four of their family’shomes were torn down, one was rebuilt, and three with water damage were repaired.36 Nieman Reports / Fall 2007