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The decline of newsprint has reached the point of the first proverbial dropping shoe.

A major U.S. city will be without a seven-day local printed newspaper.

Hurricane Katrina could not stop the 175-year-old New Orleans Times-Picayune from printing (or at least putting out an online .pdf edition). But the Newhouse/Advance Publications chain (which also owns the Oregonian and the Puget Sound Business Journal) just did.

Starting later this year, the Times-Picayune will only appear in print on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

(Advance’s Alabama papers in Birmingham, Mobile, and Huntsville will also cut to three days.)

One third of the Times-Picayune’s remaining reporting staff (after several years of previous cuts) will be laid off.

The company’s official announcement says it will “significantly increase” its NOLA.com news site, augmented by “enhanced” print editions.

But if you believe that, then you’ve probably paraded too often with Krewe Delusion.