Good news from New Orleans

Posted by R. Neal

Here's some good news for a change. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is back home:

The Times-Picayune returned to its plant on Howard Avenue in New Orleans Monday, almost six weeks after the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina forced the company to evacuate the building on Aug. 30, the day after the storm.

Tuesday's edition of the paper was printed on the hometown presses, following four weeks of printing at its sister paper, the Mobile Press-Register, and two weeks immediately after Katrina at the New York Times-owned Courier in Houma.

"We're thrilled to be back where we belong," said Publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. "We thank our readers and advertisers for their patience in the aftermath of the hurricane. We want our return to send a strong message that we believe in the rebuilding and the resurgence of the New Orleans metropolitan area and that we're part of that effort."

Some 240 employees of the newspaper left the building in the back of newspaper delivery trucks on the morning after the hurricane, as water from the 17th Street Canal breach rose around the plant. The paper left a team of editors, reporters and photographers in the city while other employees drove to Baton Rouge and established a temporary base there.

No, thank YOU, New Orleans Times-Picayune, for the incredible job you did under incredibly adverse conditions.