Leading the Way for Journalism in South Louisiana
By: Mary Eber
It’s rare to receive a newspaper that’s a hefty 65 pages, but this is common for The New Orleans Advocate on a Saturday in Louisiana. While the company’s online presence NOLA.com is nothing to be overlooked, it’s print publication has been growing circulation year over year.
Owners of The New Orleans Advocate, John and Dathel Georges, purchased the over 180-year-old newspaper, the legendary Times-Picayune, on May 1.
Now merged into one print publication, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, the purchase more than doubled its circulation overnight, and it has doubled its web traffic with NOLA.com, said Judi Terzotis, President of The Advocate.
“Because of our footprint in South Louisiana, the contiguous really approach and strategies have been let's have the kinds of back end, the bigger shop, in Baton Rouge where we have a really state of the art press and HR and finance and IT etc.,” said Terzotis, “Let's have all that and then let's grow outwardly, and so the New Orleans growth has been intentional, because of the desire to really have a strong seven day product there.”
The Georges purchased the Baton Rouge Advocate in 2013 in a response to The Times-Picayune going to three days a week. They also own the Acadiana Advocate in Lafayette.
“It's always been the company's desire to really be the dominant newspaper and news organization in New Orleans,” said Terzotis.
The company started operating July 1 after the purchase of The Times-Picayune and that month had 11 million users and 75 million-page views, the dominant digital news organization in the entire state, Terzotis said.
After the purchase, Advance Publications laid off the staff at The Times-Picayune. Some employees were moved to other Advance properties. The Advocate was given a list of people it was allowed to interview to be potential Advocate employees and hired 28 additional staffers, totalling 120 journalists across all three markets, Terzotis said.
There’s a Place for Print
While print circulation continues to decline in newsrooms across the country, before purchasing The Times-Picayune, The Advocate was actually growing circulation each year.
“There's not many markets in the country that can say that,” said Terzotis.
This is in part that it’s the south and New Orleans is a very traditional community, so they still have an appetite for print, she said.
“We still believe that there's a place for print,” Terzotis said.
Terzotis acknowledges over time it’s print publication is going to decline. “But there's still, I think, I'd say some sweet spot on the top end to grow circulation just because of our circumstances of the purchase,” she said.
It is hard to predict the changes that will come in the industry. You used to be able to project out five years, but now it’s hard to say, Terzotis said.
“A year is a lifetime in this business,” she said.
But overtime she believes it will settle into the most sought after means of receiving information.
“And that can just change, I mean, now it's our smartphone, but what will it be in the future?” she said, “I think it's going to accelerate in terms of just preferences.”
Companies must be adaptable, or they’ll get left behind. Things change fast in the industry so really understanding the audience is key, Terzotis said.
Having the Community’s Back
The New Orleans Advocate won its first Pulitzer prize in April for reporting on the racial impacts of Louisiana’s laws allowing jurors to convict defendants without unanimous verdict. Louisiana was one of only two states, Oregon is the other, that allowed people charged with felonies to be convicted with less than a unanimous vote by a jury of peers.
“So, we really went through the history of it and it goes back to Jim Crow days,” she said.
Seven months later, Louisiana’s voters amended the state constitution to demand unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.
“And then the residents of Louisiana changed that law as a result of our reporting and that all happened in such a short time,” said Terzotis.
The Advocate started reporting on it in April of 2018 and by November the law was changed.
“So there's just I think, an example of, us really making sure that we're bringing to light injustice,” Terzotis said. “And then on the other side of the coin, really celebrating the good things about living in south Louisiana.”
The Advocate had three full time reporters devoted to the series for about a three-month period and that’s all they worked on, Terzotis said.
“I came from Gannett, where I was working for 25 years and it's very rare that that kind of resource would be devoted to one story,” said Terzotis. “And it just was a belief by our editor that you know what, this is wrong, and we're going to put the reporting behind it, and we're going to let the readers and the community decide what they do with that information.”
Advice for Young Journalists
Good reporting is always a necessity, but it’s important to really fine tune your reporting skills and be very data driven, Terzotis said.
“A lot of reporting is going to have to be backed by data, and so that means understanding and being able to analyze data,” she said.
Another key, being able to market your own content and be very socially savvy and understand the responsibilities that come with that, Terzotis said.
While newsrooms are moving into paid online sites, they look at the reporter level to see how many conversations came from those reporters into paid digital subscriptions, she said.
“So it's understanding it's more than just reporting. It's a little bit bigger than that and those are the folks, I think, that will be very successful,” Terzotis said.
The Advocate is unique because you have an owner that doesn’t cut corners, she said. Terzotis hopes to see local ownership of media properties continue to grow because that’s where you find people who will put in the resources and not be as bottom line driven as the national chains.
Mary Eber is a senior at Ball State, majoring in Journalism and Telecommunications. She graduates in December 2019 and can be reached at maryebernews@gmail.com