The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which distinguished itself amid great adversity during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is about to enact large staff cuts and may cut back its print publishing schedule to several days a week, according to two employees with knowledge of the plans.Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the Times-Picayune, will apparently be working off a blueprint the company used in Ann Arbor, Mich., where it reduced the frequency of the Ann Arbor News, emphasized the Web site as a primary distributor of news and in the process instituted wholesale layoffs to cut costs.A request for comment from the newspaper’s editor, Jim Amoss, late Wednesday night was not returned.The plans have been kept under wraps, but the newspaper will likely cease to exist as a ... Continue reading →
Rich Schultz/The Associated PressThe Christie administration has fought with regional grid operators and federal authorities over its incentives for new power plants. The cost of ensuring that power plants are available at peak demand times dropped a bit for northern New Jersey, state officials said as they hailed new rates for so-called "capacity payments" set last Friday by the region’s power grid operator. But the real news isn’t the price tag of the payments, which aren’t the main factor for ratepayer bills. What has energy industry insiders talking is that several planned New Jersey power plants will get the funding — plants state officials fought federal regulators to get built, and which are still the subject of heated debate and pending lawsuits. It is a ... Continue reading →
by Andrew Beaujon Published May 23, 2012 7:49 am Updated May 23, 2012 7:55 am Fairleigh Dickinson University People who watch no news at all can answer more questions about international current events than people who watch cable news, a survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds. NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative news outlets, while exposure to partisan sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC, has a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge. People who watch MSNBC and CNN exclusively can answer more questions about domestic events than people who watch no news at all. People who only watch Fox did much worse. NPR listeners answered more questions correctly than people in any other category. The largest effect ... Continue reading →