Friday, Jack Shafer wrote “What’s Really Killing Newspapers?” at Slate.com. He contends that it’s no longer the place people go for “social currency” – ” the information we acquire and then trade – or give away – to start, maintain, and nurture relationships with our fellow humans. ” Not surprisingly, Shafer finds the Internet a better source of social currency, particularly Facebook, which he describes as “the Federal Reserve Bank of social currency.”

The horror stories we hear about the state of the newspaper business are real, but comparatively speaking, The Times-Picayune hasn’t experienced the same crunch other papers have. I wonder if it’s because we live in a city where it still provides significant social currency, one where the news directly applies to our lives and we know it. I’m always reluctant to go to “Best Batch Yet” explanations, but I wonder if we’ve discovered that the news isn’t just the abstract doings of the wealthy and powerful – stuff outside our control -and not knowing what’s in the paper impairs our ability to be part of our community.