Photo Credit: Flickr user .distracted

As New Orleans prepares to become a major city without a daily newspaper, a foundation-supported online news start-up this week documented residents’ love of the local Times-Picayune.

Starting this fall, the paper will be printed and delivered only three days a week. That’s a blow for a city with lots of committed newspaper readers. The Lens NOLA, a nonprofit news site in New Orleans and a Knight Community Information Challenge winner, decided to show what that commitment looks like.

Managing editor Steve Beatty assigned a photographer to show New Orleans residents reading their newspapers on Monday and Tuesday, days when the Times-Picayune will no longer be published starting in the fall.

The result is a photo essay entitled “A look at a disappearing daily ritual for many.”

The effort was featured on Poynter Online, a major journalism website.

The Lens is a two-time winner of the Knight Community Information Challenge, with support from the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

By Michele McLellan, Knight Community Information Circuit Rider