It was working up to be yet another IUD when the noon newscaster dropped a bombshell: The New Orleans Times-Picayune will no longer be publishing seven days a week. They're going to cut out a couple of days. In a few years it will probably disappear completely.

I guess this is the start of a trend, unfortunately.

When I was a kid there were morning newspapers and afternoon newspapers. Essentially no television (at least not in my first ten or so years), but there were radio reports.

I wonder if they will publish a weekly TV/radio schedule/guide.

Any other parts of the country cutting back on their newspapers?

I guess it's because I've read a LOT of speculative fiction over the years, but I see it as a decline in encouraging thinking and awareness.

I wish I had the writing skills that YD has--I'd be putting speculations into a narrative.

Yes, I know there are a good number of authors using societal illiteracy in their fictional worlds. And I'm sure I've read some. How about some of you tossing titles and authors around?

I could blither on for longer, but my boy cat is being VERY insistent about getting his head scritched. And he's making it very hard to type.

So--let's hear about any other areas that are cutting back or eliminating written news reports.