Advocate plans localized edition for New Orleans

The Advocate is laying the groundwork to reach into the New Orleans market as that city’s Times-Picayune scales back its daily print newspaper coverage to three days a week.

The Advocate’s front page will be reworked for a New Orleans edition that reflects more of the city’s news, said Richard Manship, president and CEO of Capital City Press.

“This has to have significant news in it,” he continued. “This is not just an attempt to sell more papers. We will be trying to cover the news in New Orleans.”

The Advocate will add staff to supply this added coverage, Manship said without providing specific numbers.

It would be a return to a New Orleans presence for The Advocate, which had a correspondent there until 2009.

“From the moment that they announced that they were going to a three-day-a-week newspaper, we thought there would be tremendous opportunities for The Advocate to fill a void they’re creating,” Manship said.

The Times-Picayune, which is owned by Advance Publications Inc., a Newhouse family company, announced plans in mid-June to convert the 175-year-old New Orleans daily into a 24-hour digital news source with a print edition occurring only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

A new company, the NOLA Media Group, is being formed to oversee The Times-Picayune and its affiliated website, NOLA.com.

The move to a three-day-a-week print version has generated swarms of opposition across all ranks of New Orleans residents, ranging from cab drivers to university presidents.

In addition to its print cut-backs, the Picayune said it is laying off about 200 employees, 84 of them from the newsroom, according to Associated Press reports in June.

In May 2009, The Advocate shuttered its own New Orleans bureau when it laid off 49 employees as the newspaper slogged through the recession.

“We plan on hiring a staff,” Manship said, though he did not say how large the staff would be initially. “Now, we can’t staff a ton of people down there because the economics aren’t going to work. We actually have to make money doing this. And so, we’ll start out with what we think can get the job done.”

There was no mention of how the paper will be circulated in New Orleans.

The Advocate’s plans will coincide with the Times-Picayune’s transition to a three-day-a-week printed publication, Manship said.

“We are looking at the day that they cease to be a seven-day newspaper and I think that’s around the first of October,” he explained.

Comments

1) Comment by Mr. T - 24/07/2012

@spar...this weekend's advocates were a perfect example of what you are talking about. They actually had more news about Ascension, Lafayette, Iberia and Livingston parishes than Baton Rouge. As for the quality of the articles, check out the article today on this web site "Board Freezes Millage" if you read the article, the Central School Board actually lowered the millages and froze their tax revenue, thanks to their expanding tax base. Chances are that this error will never be corrected...they would much rather hide their mistakes than correct them.

2) Comment by spqr - 24/07/2012

Does that mean the BR edition will now have more BR news? Let's hope so. The Advocate has slowly moved away from local news and reached into Acadiana and deep into the Florida Parishes to increase circulation. The Advocate needs a newspaper to return "home".

3) Comment by BRmoderate - 24/07/2012

I read The Advocate everyday and just simply wish that they ask harder questions and inform the reader of perspectives not found in soundbites. I have a loyalty to getting my news from the paper, not TV websites. Reach just a little deeper in the stories. There are a lot of stories that just sound like press releases and soundbites. I feel The Advocate has not been thorough enough in its coverage of the education reforms. Simply writing about it does not mean you are covering the story.

4) Comment by Mr. T - 24/07/2012

Fact is, the local tv news almost always beats the advocate on major news. Perfect example is the Baton Rouge woman who was wounded in the Colorado Batman movie shooting. WAFB is kicking their can so bad, they stopped covering it. Reading the advocate is like watching a train wreck -- it is hard to look away.

5) Comment by movingon - 24/07/2012

If you don't like it don't read it. All the local tv stations have online news.

6) Comment by Terd Handler - 24/07/2012

@Riroom...you obviously haven't picked up a copy of the advocate lately...they have been on a steady decline lately. They laid off a bunch of people a couple of years ago, and the size of the paper has shrunk tremendously. Quality is poor, and newspaper is riddled with errors, many of which are never corrected. It is a bad joke that a publication of such low quality would undergo such an ambitious expansion. In short, they are going broke, just like the TP.

7) Comment by gary - 24/07/2012

Good news. The MA will sell a lot of papers in the NO area - their circulation should sky rocket from labor day until the week after the superbowl. If the Hornets get better - their circulation should stay strong through May. I know this might not satisfy the real news hounds - but we all know that sports turns the wheels in Louisiana.

8) Comment by Wotan - 23/07/2012

Where do I sign up? It will be a very great pleasure to cancel my 31-year subscription to the TP. I have loved it and defended it, but it is over. So much talent squandered.

9) Comment by Riroon - 23/07/2012

THANK YOU!!!! From the city of NOLA! (And for those complaining about the quality of the Advocate -- trust a guy that worked for six publications in La. These guys do a great job.)

10) Comment by Woody - 23/07/2012

i can see it now. around january first inside the front page at the bottom left corner it will say: "correction: the advocate attempted to publish a worthy replacement for the picayune when in fact it is not even worthy of itself. after three months, the advocate regrets the error"

11) Comment by Mr. T - 23/07/2012

Let's hope the New Orleans edition of the Advocate is better than the existing Baton rouge product. Otherwise, it's doomed.

12) Comment by Elderly Man - 23/07/2012

Good show and good luck!