The Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ daily newspaper, made a major announcement last week: starting in the fall, it will cut back on print editions and only publish three days a week. For a newspaper with a 175-year history, that’s a huge step, and when it happens, New Orleans will be the biggest city in the U.S. without a daily newspaper.

Here on OOM, we’ve spent time examining the art of (e)reading, and whether or not electronic devices like Kindles and iPads have the power to replace books and libraries altogether. But what about newspapers? In an increasingly digital age, breaking news is constantly at our fingertips. Whether it’s through the online version of a newspaper, a smartphone app, or a Twitter feed, technology is playing an increasingly vital role in the way we consume current events. As print revenues decline, it seems inevitable that newspapers nationwide will be forced to face the same sorts of cutbacks in their print editions — but the changes haven’t gone without criticism.

In response to the announcement about print cutbacks, New Orleans Picayune readers spoke out in disbelief and anger, calling the paper “part of [their] tradition” and urging the publication to reconsider its decision. Ironically, readers protesting this very decision are using the Internet to get their point across: www.savethepicayune.com even re-directs viewers to a Facebook page of the same name. How much of the upset surrounding the print cutbacks is due to folks actually reading the hard copy of the paper each day, and how much is out of a commitment to tradition?

When it comes to your news, how do you like it? Do you read your local daily paper? Or are you more likely to get your news from online sources? We’d love to hear your thoughts on hard-copy newspapers in the comments!