Since forever, we’ve heard how teams, owners, players don’t need newspapers. Until they realize they do.

That appears to be the case in New Orleans. Saints owner Tom Benson is upset with last week’s announcement that the New Orleans Times-Picayune will be published only three days per week. He fired off a pleading note to Advance Publication’s Steve Newhouse, asking him to reconsider the decision.

Benson writes:

It is my belief that New Orleans has the passion and spirit and resilience and deserves to be a city with a daily. Major league cities (and rest assured, we are one), have high-visibility entities such as NBA and NFL teams. They host Super Bowls, Final Fours, BCS National Championships, All-Star games, and other international events. It is hard for me to imagine no Times-Picayune on Monday, February 4, 2013, the day after our city hosts Super Bowl XLVII.

Indeed, imagine how strange it would be not to have a daily hometown paper during Super Bowl week. I think there’s a good chance the Times-Picayune will go seven days to capitalize on all the visitors in town.

However, what about the rest of the time?

The bigger picture is that multiple stories about the Saints in a newspaper represents free advertising for Benson. Even when the stories are bad (and they’ve been really bad for the Saints of late), a huge daily presence still keeps the team front and center.

Obviously, Benson is worried there won’t be the same effect for the Times-Picayune’s coverage on the other days via its website. He concludes:

The Times-Picayune boasts top ranking in the nation in proportion of people who read both daily and Sunday newspapers. That’s the pinnacle and gold standard for a newspaper to aspire to. It is not the time to make a dramatic switch to publishing only three times a week.

I urge you to please reconsider your decision to take away our city’s only daily newspaper.

Benson’s note has to make you feel better if you still work for a newspaper. It shows some people still think they are important.