New Orleans Group Shifts Plan for Nonprofit Newsroom

Business and community leaders in New Orleans are changing recently announced plans for a nonprofit journalism site aimed at filling the local-news gap when the city’s main paper curtails publication, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Rather than launch a new reporting site, as they outlined in a July announcement, organizers will instead raise money to support newsgathering efforts for articles on an existing site, the Lens, and New Orleans radio station WWNO.

Steve Beatty, managing editor of the Lens, said partners in the effort “agreed that this was a way not to duplicate efforts and increase efficiencies.” Organizers said they hope to raise $1-million to $2-million a year for three years.

The Times-Picayune, the city’s longtime daily, will reduce its print run to three days a week.