TAKE THAT NEWHOUSE!

New Orleans edition of The Advocate

The newspaper pictured above lay in our driveway yesterday morning. The management of the Baton Rouge Advocate stepped into the breach when Newhouse's Advance Publications decided to publish the paper edition of the venerable New Orleans Times-Picayune only three days a week starting October 1.  The Baton Rouge paper, which is also venerable, will cover New Orleans news seven days a week in an edition that will be sold at newsstands and delivered to homes and businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.  The Advocate hired former members of the TP staff who had been dismissed by Advance to run the New Orleans bureau and will continue with its thorough coverage of state politics in the new edition.  The response from people in greater NO and nearby parishes who wish to subscribe has been overwhelming, so much so, that the paper had to hire a call service to help handle requests for subscriptions.

Of course, it's not the same as having the Times-Picayune, which I read nearly my entire life since learning to read the funnies, and I'm still in mourning, but I'm very grateful for daily coverage of NO in a paper version.  Soon after half the staff was fired, we cancelled our subscription to the TP, for the paper very soon became a shell of itself.

To mark the launch of the New Orleans edition, The Advocate is rolling out an advertising campaign across the Crescent City that will involve print, TV, radio and billboards.

“We hope to get as many subscribers as possible,” [David] Manship [[publisher] said.

The Advocate’s coverage and staffing in New Orleans will get “bigger and better” as more subscribers get the newspaper.

I wish The Advocate every  success in its endeavor to give us a daily newspaper which covers the New Orleans area.