Any day a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, the Times-Picayune’s front page is a must-peek. But Thursday’s front page is missing from the Newseum’s “Today’s Front Pages” feature.
Did the presses stop early? No, says Ricky Mathews, the paper’s publisher. He emails:
We have not missed a day of publication in New Orleans. We printed in Mobile, Alabama last night since we have no power at the plant in New Orleans. Our drivers braved high wind and rain to get the papers back to Louisiana. Of course there will be spotty delivery, but subscribers will get deliveries when conditions permit. We also enabled free access to the e-edition of the Times Picayune via NOLA.com and communicated that access in advance of the storm. Our reporters are scattered throughout the region doing amazing work for both the Times Picayune and NOLA.com.
A Newseum employee told Poynter via email the paper didn’t transmit a front page Thursday. The paper usually sends them between midnight and 5 a.m., he said. A tweet from The New York Times’ Michael Roston captured the frustration of front-page collectors everywhere:
No Times-Picayune front page today, because no Times-Picayune today
— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) August 30, 2012
The Times-Picayune will stop printing daily this fall as it shifts focus to NOLA.com, which is providing updates about the storm. We tracked down today’s front page. A note on the e-edition of the paper says, “The Times-Picayune will continue to proÂduce a print edition despite the storm, but the inclement weather may cause delays or disruptions to deliveries.” It may also have disrupted delivery to the Newseum.
Another note says, “Because of power outages due to Hurricane Isaac, some sections of this newspaper had to be printed at our sister publication, the Mobile Press-Register, which is designed for a narrower page width. As a result, today’s edition contains sections of varying widths.”
Here’s an image of the front page from the e-edition:
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