The people of New Orleans have seen The Times-Picayune as part of their city for the past 175 years, but on Sunday the newspaper ended production as a daily paper, which makes New Orleans the only major city in the United States without a daily paper.  
Advance Publications, the parent company of The Times Picayune, announced   in May that it would decrease publication to three times a week and focus on getting readers to their website.  The newspaper will be published for home delivery and store vendors on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.  
Steve Newhouse, chairman of the digital division of Advance Publications, said the rise in digital consumption by readers and advertisers was a big factor in Advance Publications’ decision.    
“The increased importance of mobile platforms has added even more complexity to the picture,” Newhouse said in an article on Poynter.org.  
Kim Bondy, former vice president of CNN and a New Orleans Native, disagreed with the company’s decision at the Oxford American New South Journalism Symposium, which discussed the reorganizaing of The Times-Picayune.  
“I don’t think anyone can attest they have truly moved on to electronic journalism,” Bondy said.  
 Bondy said she grew up reading The Times-Picayune with her great grandfather who owned a newspaper stand in New Orleans.  She said she doubts Nola.com, the Picayune website, would deliver the same quality journalism as a hard copy paper.  
Andrew Nelson, visiting professor at Loyola and contributing writer for National Geographic Traveler, said the future of journalism comes down to journalists themselves.
“Even with new technology we still have to learn how to communicate with each other,” Nelson said.  
The panel agreed New Orleanians were not given the opportunity to keep The Times Picayune tradition alive.   
Bondy said many residents of the city were left to wonder why their newspaper would cease daily production without any opportunity for residents to voice their concerns.  Bondy said a proposal from the newspaper to increase subscription prices might have kept the paper in daily production longer.
 In times of hardship and concern, residents of New Orleans had the opportunity to get information from their daily paper, Nelson said.
“Traditionally, when we have these issues we turn to our newspaper,” he said of how the paper should be used to bring awareness to community problems such as the disappearance of a daily publication.   
 Al Delahaye, professor emeritus of journalism at Nicholls State University, said The Times Picayune ended its daily production five years sooner than he expected.  
As newspaper executives fired veteran reporters and made reductions in staff, Delahaye said, “It has now lost its institutional memory because it has replaced veteran reporters.”  
As a subscriber to The Times Picayune, Delahaye said, “Not having a Picayune ruins my morning.  I prefer my news as ink on paper.”  
The Times Picayune plans to move forward with more online coverage, while long time readers and journalism professors fear the news site will not produce accurate and aggressive journalism as they have in print editions.
Alex Rawls, guest editor of Oxford American’s upcoming Louisiana Music Issue, said “The rush to produce online stories can produce trust issues since it’s easy to change and update information online.”  
He said easy access to information might create lazy journalists who focus on the rush to produce information rather than the quality of information they publish.
While the city prepared for the loss of their beloved paper, Baton Rouge’s The Advocate began taking subscriptions for an incoming daily paper for the city of New Orleans.    
Carl Redman, executive editor of The Advocate, said he realized his news organization would not be able to keep up with the coverage of the Picayune but hopes to expand the newspaper staff and coverage as more people subscribe.
“Our objective in New Orleans is to give our readers the highpoints of what’s going on in the their community,” Redman said.  “If you give us 30 days you’re going to like what you see.”