Time to clear the matter up a little...
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It's pretty easy, this one. "Picayune" does mean "of little or no consequence", "trivial", "petty". But this is because, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary (which has undergone a bit of a facelift, by the way, since I last looked), the word probably comes from the Louisiana French picaillon, a coin worth five cents, and goes back to an older small copper coin from France, the picaioun.
The newspaper angle comes from the fact that when The Picayune was established in 1837, its price was one picayune, or about six and a half cents at the going rate. Adjusting backward for inflation, this actually seems a bit steep to me.
I was interested to learn that The Picayune innovated such features as a society page and a women's advice column. But of course the really newsworthy story about the Times-Picayune was how they managed to cover Hurricane Katrina. For two days, they could not print the paper, but were able to get a PDF online.
How did they do this without a newsroom? Well, the Columbia Journalism Review deemed this story important enough to write it up.
And no, not picayune at all.
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Oh, sad reminder of the terrible suffering from Katrina. What admirable persistence in reporting. And I loved learning about the newspaper's title!
ReplyDeleteMe too. And I'm glad the Columbia Journalism Review preserved the story of how they did it, as they probably didn't have all that much time to report on themselves!
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ReplyDeleteThe Picayune came through big on that story. As to not being able to print papers and doing without newsrooms, I’ll keep the obvious bitter wisecracks to myself.
ReplyDeleteI always smile when I read about the Columbia Journalism Review or the American Journalism Review because I realize that twenty years ago the folks writing those articles would likely have been working on newspapers instead of writing about them. Same with all those ex-newspaper folks who took healthy buyouts and parachuted into think-tank-type jobs examining the worrying state of American journalism.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Of course, the state of American journalism is worrying, Peter. But I see your point.
ReplyDeleteI ran into a retired colleague a couple of years ago who rubbed his hands together with glee over the money he was making writing portentous reports about the state of the profession -- more than he had when working in it.
ReplyDeleteHope you were taking notes, Peter.
ReplyDeleteNah, I was just basking in the joy he took making money of the importance journalism attaches to itself.
ReplyDeleteIt's ephemeral, but still important.
ReplyDeleteOh, it is. I've said this a thousand times and maybe I'll set it down in some more more organized or entertaining form. For now, I'll say that when people think of journalism, they mistakenly equate the term with reporters.
ReplyDeleteI for one would appreciate the clarification, whenever you have the time.
ReplyDeleteI should probably save the details for my memoirs. In general terms, I mean simply that it takes a lot more than reporters to make a newspaper; that newsrooms tend to be run by former reporters, with predictable results; and that when reporters write about newspapers, they rely on the easy sources: other reporters and former reporters, again, with predictable results.
ReplyDeleteGot it.
ReplyDeleteThe current state of the industry is exposing many of those previously buried fault lines. American newsrooms could be the sites of some interesting melodramas, if only I weren't smack in the middle of one.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what industry hasn't had such faultlines exposed recently?
ReplyDeleteYes, but I expect that journalism is unusual in this respect: Outsiders know what they do about the state of journalism primary through ... journalism. So public perception of the industry (insofar as the public should care about the inside operations of this, or any other industry) may be uniquely skewed by quirks in the way the industry covers itself.
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