Georges signs letter of intent to buy The Advocate

Advocate staff photo by KAREN MARTIN --In 2005, The Advocate began printing at its 117,000-square-foot state-of-the art production plant on Reiger Road.

David Manship, publisher of The Advocate, and New Orleans businessman John Georges have signed a letter of intent for Georges to buy Baton Rouge’s daily newspaper in a deal that is expected to close by June 1.

Terms were not disclosed. Manship, who is also chief operating officer of Capital City Press, which owns The Advocate, and Richard Manship, president and chief executive officer of Capital City Press, announced the agreement in a news release but would not comment further.

David Manship said in the news release that the sale will be a stock sale with no planned interruption in business.

“We are extremely happy about the prospect of selling our family newspaper to a Louisiana businessman with strong ties to Louisiana,” David Manship said.

Georges also declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Georges, 52, who has business holdings ranging from food service distribution to Galatoire’s restaurant, said in January that he had a “serious interest” in buying The Advocate and that he expected any official offer for the newspaper would be before the summer.

Georges had approached Capital City Press about 20 months ago about buying The Advocate. Georges had said his talks with the Manship family, which owns Capital City Press, were put on hold for several months while the newspaper launched its daily New Orleans edition.

The Advocate, which employs about 450 people, launched the edition in October to fill the void created by The Times-Picayune’s decision to switch to a three-day-a-week print edition.

Georges’ talks with The Advocate resumed at the end of 2012.

Georges Enterprises, a billion-dollar business, owns and manages a variety of Louisiana-based companies. Among those is the 98-year-old family business Imperial Trading Co., which was started by his maternal grandfather, a Greek immigrant named C.H. Pelias. Imperial Trading, a wholesale grocery company, has branches throughout the South, distributing goods to convenience stores. Other business interests are 68-year-old AMA Distributors; 91-year-old Harrison Co. in Bossier; and 108-year-old Galatoire’s restaurant in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

In recent years, the company purchased 61-year-old Union Wholesale in New Albany, Miss., and 76-year-old Clifford D. Fite Wholesale in Cedartown, Ga.

The Advocate’s name goes back to The Democratic Advocate, a weekly newspaper established in 1842. Charles P. Manship Sr. in 1912 formed Capital City Press, which at one time operated an afternoon paper and continues to run The Advocate.

The Advocate’s average weekday circulation is about 98,000 and Sunday circulation is about 125,000 — boosted by its recent entry into the New Orleans market. New Orleans accounts for about 20,000 issues daily.

The news release Friday noted that The Advocate’s print facility, put into operation in 2006 on Reiger Road, is capable of handling increases in circulation to serve south Louisiana with daily news.

The Advocate also disseminates news through its website — theadvocate.com — and various digital platforms and apps.

Comments

1) Comment by Bill Paxton - 16/03/2013

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2) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 16/03/2013

We need more bang for our buck. Sometimes the daily paper resembles the advertisement papers I get in the mail box. Surely there is more news than we are given. The Lafayette area gets as much articles as does Baton Rouge and now here come New Orleans articles, especially crime reports. Now that's a joke. Our citizens are being murdered and robbed daily and the Advocate thinks we need to read about crime there? Ridiculous!

3) Comment by tradewinns - 16/03/2013

mr t, cats doesn't have an answer to that question. cats is still befuddled they won the money in the election lotto. at first they had it all divided up equally amongst themselves and their friends, then someone who has been on the wining side of election let them know you couldn't be quite so forward in giving away the money. so now the maanagement team is trying to figure out who they feel they can trust to send some of the money back to them. mr. georges is a democrat. i see no great change in any policy at the advocate which may or will spread light on the democrats' shadows. of which there are more shadows than dollars debt in our national obligation. thank you obama!!!

4) Comment by twinkie1cat - 16/03/2013

I hope Mr. Georges does not make the Advocate into some right leaning fawn of the GOP and maintains its editorial integrity. This means maintaining the 450 word limit on the letters, and even improving that section in order to provide occasional "hot topics" pages where, in addition to other issues on the regular editorial page, there is a whole page of letters on a particularly formidable subject. Right now a good topic would be Jindal's no income tax plan. Such a page would be especially important during March before the legislature goes into session and throughout the session in order to let the people speak on what they want the legislature to do, not just their own representative.>>>>> I have also noticed that the paper seems especially thin early in the week. Sometimes the Metro news section is only 8 pages, like a small town paper. Mondays are especially bad. I think there needs to be more paper. The religion section also needs more actual news and views from more pastors. How about something from the pastors on gun control similar to the interviews on the editorial page? >>>>>>>>Finally, get a better balance of liberal and conservative columnists. Even if the days have to be alternated, there should be about the same number of each, especially those of the ilk of Eugene Robinson. Just have a liberal day and a conservative day so we can avoid the ones we want to hit. Oh well, maybe I should write a letter. But one thing finally is that I like that most people who have real thoughts and can express them coherently do get printed even if they are ALL WRONG. I like that and the fact that the Advocate does not appear to have an editorial viewpoint that is all one way or the other.

5) Comment by Terd Handler - 16/03/2013

From what I can tell, the Advocate even got beat on the story about its sale to Mr. Georges. Now that is truly pathetic.

6) Comment by Mr. T - 16/03/2013

The whole point is that the Advocate doesn't ask tough questions. I am still waiting to read an article on how CATS will spend the money that voters approved last year. They were so busy editorializing against ithe bus tax that didn't tell us much about how it was going to be spent. Here we are, a year later, and they still won't tell us. And it's just not CATS, it's pretty much everything they report. Things have got to get better under Mr. Georges cause they can't get worse.

7) Comment by PLac - 16/03/2013

For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time [of doom] for the nations. Ezekiel 30:3

8) Comment by Bill Paxton - 16/03/2013

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9) Comment by Bighug - 16/03/2013

I appreciate the Advocate and think it is a very good paper. Maybe not perfect, but I can't throw the first stone. I only hope the new owners continue to give us a fine newspaper.

10) Comment by markedwardmarchiafava - 16/03/2013

It's simple, Mr. T. Refuse to serve as a Pravda-like mouthpiece for government, grill such persons and report they refused to answer the really tough questions !!!

11) Comment by Mr. T - 16/03/2013

I hope the new owner hires reporters who report the facts instead of constantly editorialing in their articles, and slanting their writings against the Governor, the Mayor, the school boardand other govrnment offiicials who mostly refuse to be interviewed by them. Let us make up our own minds, please!

12) Comment by welcometothebananarepublic - 16/03/2013

I hope the new ownership hires editors and writers for whom English is a first language.

13) Comment by spqr - 16/03/2013

I just hope the new ownership will allow comments on all stories instead of blocking a selected few that are deemed by the Advocate as controversial.

14) Comment by Hello Baton Rouge - 16/03/2013

Maybe he can install a comment system that you wont have to log into every 3 minutes and will make it harder for these idiot spammers' messages to stay up for so long, while good comments get deleted

15) Comment by PLac - 16/03/2013

Bankruptcy is a creative tool for the wealthy - Donald Trump

16) Comment by Being_Stupid - 16/03/2013

George is a good name. Lot of good folks are named George.

17) Comment by 8point6 - 16/03/2013

Let's see if this will result in unbiased news reporting or more "progressive" news reporting than it already is.

18) Comment by Cousin Dave - 16/03/2013

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19) Comment by PLac - 16/03/2013

For the day is near, even the Yom Hashem is near, a Yom Anan (Day of Cloud); it shall be the time of the Goyim. (Ezek.30:3) Jewish Orthodox Bible