The Advocate of Baton Rouge and New Orleans will “substantially beef up news coverage” in Louisiana’s Acadiana region, and may add a distinct Acadiana edition in 2014, owner John Georges told business leaders in Lafayette, La., Wednesday.
“New Orleans is the test for what we’re going to be doing here,” he said. The paper has five staffers in the region currently, three of them reporters. Its current Acadiana edition has “fewer than 10,000 subscribers,” Billy Gunn reports.
Lafayette is served by the Gannett-owned Daily Advertiser, whose most recent publisher’s statement filed with the Alliance for Audited Media shows average Sunday circulation of 35,066 and average Monday-Saturday circulation of 26,416.
Georges also said Louisiana football legend Archie Manning told him The Advocate is “the best sports paper in the country.”
