Dear Sir:
Since you bought the now-175-year-old New Orleans Times-Picayune, your company has profited greatly from owning the paper. No surprise, as the T-P has the largest readership per capita (penetration) of any big city daily in the US. Newhouse and your partner Advance have enjoyed a rich return on your investment.
Your decision to cut daily production to three times per week and fire half of the prize-winning news staff have sparked outrage in the community and pleas to either reconsider or sell the paper to someone who will maintain it as a daily.
Reports and rumors of potential suitors have been circulating since your announcement. Even Warren Buffett, who has himself made major investments in print newspapers lately, has questioned the business wisdom of your decision, leading many to wonder if Mr. Buffett himself was interested in taking over the paper. Still no reports of offers have been confirmed.
Until now.
It has now been publicly confirmed that Tom Benson, owner of local station WVUE and the New Orleans Saints franchise, has made it clear he is not just speculating about joining with others to take over the Times-Pic, but is prepared to enter negotiations with your company immediately to make that happen. (pdf of Benson letter here).
Mr. Newhouse, it is obvious to everyone in New Orleans and the publishing industry that your company does not care to continue the nearly two century tradition embodied in the paper you own, but insist on downsizing and digitizing our great daily into a business model completely unsuited to our city.
I know I speak for hundreds of thousands of Orleanians and millions across the nation when I beg you: take the offer. Congratulate yourself on a profitable run and pass off our paper to someone who cares about it and the city it serves.
New Orleans deserves a great, daily paper. Let it go.