Last year when New Orleans' main paper, The Times-Picayune laid off dozens of newspaper employees and cut its circulation to three times a week, residents were shocked.
Sharron Morrow and her friends had bonded over the morning paper at a local coffee shop for the past 20 years.
"I've stopped my subscription, and I mourn the paper almost every day," she says.
Shifting Media Players
Newspaper circulation has been rapidly declining all over the country. Advertising revenue has plummeted while online revenue has been making small gains. The The Times-Picayune re-branded itself as The Times-Picayune NOLA.com, representative of its new Web-centered focus.
Multimillionaire John Georges was one of the local movers and shakers furious at the Times-Picayune's changes. He tried to buy the company, but the New York-based owners refused to sell it, so Georges decided to start his own daily paper.
He bought The Advocate, a daily paper based 80 miles away in Baton Rouge, and launched a New Orleans edition.
"We fought the Battle of New Orleans once before; some think we are going to fight it again in the newspaper," he says.
To lead the charge, Georges hired Dan Shea, a managing editor laid off from The Times-Picayune during cutbacks. In the weeks since his hiring, a slew of prize-winning reporters have jumped from The Times-Picayune to The Advocate. Shea says subscriptions in New Orleans are growing.
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