New Orleans Advocate purchases Times-Picayune, nola.com

The AJC does not travel with the Hawks? How about with Team White Flight?

 

From The New York Times: How a Newspaper War in New Orleans Ended: With a Baked Alaska and Layoffs

 

This is horrible. Ranks right up there with what Paxton did in Durham, just more devious. Paxton’s suits were just plain thugs.

 

Worse than Durham. Paxton had to hold onto staffers to get out a product. The Times-Picayune staff is an even more comprehensive housecleaning than Durham was ... which is saying something considering how poorly Paxton handled the situation in Durham.

 

I agree Paxson is a poor comparison. Paxson brutally downsized a staff but the Durham paper still served the same circulation area. I think a better example is what McClatchy did when they bought Durham from Raleigh. They left about four reporters to cover Durham and produce essentially the same editorial content in both markets, though they maintain separate mastheads. The Advocate is taking it a step further,as did the St. Petersburg paper when they acquired the Tampa Tribune, and merge the mastheads.

MBA students were taught that when demand for a product declines the industry shrinks by merging. This is an example. I predict there will be many more.

Not many papers still print in a stand alone plant. Are virtually every paper in the country has seen its ability to produce local content reduced because of staff cutbacks. So if a paper is already being produced at a centralized plant and there are not enough reporters left to produce a locally tailored paper it makes economic sense to go ahead and consolidate into a regional paper.

 

Thanks for the educational post. This is what gets me so upset about suits. All of a sudden they at the drop of the hat can become sub-human. I mean no job is worth being so rude to not even ask you how your mom was doing and have a goon escort you out of the building. This is sub-human behavior and any suit with self respect would not partake in something like this. At some point no job is worth losing your self respect. You kept yours, sir. On behalf of humanity, thank you. To the suits who treated such a hard worker so awful at the end, well F__K them!!!
So glad you didn't sign the termination papers. Shame on those suits who signed them when they apparently were full of lies.
I don't know you but I want to commend you. I know anybody at any time can get stabbed in the back. You are a smart person and obviously knew this before you got stabbed in the back. So we all know it can and will happen to all of us in this dregs of a business.
I just say SHAME ON YOU suits who partake in this kind of stuff. I would rather be penniless than escort a former valued employee out the building as if that employee was now a common criminal and would rather be penniless than sign a termination document that was not true.
Bless you sir!! Walk toward your next endeavor with your head held high. Thanks for sharing this!!!
Fredrick

 

If the combined papers do not staff the Pelicans with a beat reporter with the drama of Davis staying or going and Zion coming to town we know he really, really, really has no interest in NBA basketball. Especially when they staff LSU baseball.

And to not staff the NBA is taking a Caucasian perspective. I am quite sure the black community in Louisiana, which is 32% of the state, follows the NBA one hell of a lot more than college baseball, even at program as historically as good as LSU.

 

Just to take the discussion a little further. LSU has 56 games scheduled this year and 37 will be televised while 19 will not. Every Pelicans game was televised. Cox, which I guess is the local cable company, televised one game LSU baseball game while they televised every non-network game Pelican game. If LSU baseball draws more interest than the Pelicans why don't they have a contract with Cox for more than one game? My guess is that if LSU baseball had higher ratings than the Pelicans on the SEC network the team would have a contract with Cox. Does LSU or the Pelicans draw higher ratings?

According to Wikipedia LSU leads the country in baseball attendance and appears to pretty much sell out every game in a stadium with about 12,000 seats. The Pelicans draw about 16,000. But I would bet a lot of money that Pelicans games also cost a lot more than LSU baseball to attend. If that is true that would indicate demand for Pelicans tickets is more than for LSU baseball tickets.

 

You explained it in more depth than I have time to, Joe, so I'll just back this up. It's not a stretch to say that LSU baseball is probably more popular in Louisiana, and South Louisiana in particular, than a lot of MLB teams are in their respective markets. Hell, they had a higher average attendance than the Marlins did last season and probably could have outdrawn the Rays and Pirates if the stadium was big enough.

Plus, as you said, there are no real alternatives. The AP refuses to acknowledge college baseball exists until the NCAA Tournament starts. So it's either staff it if you have the means (which the Advocate does) or be at the mercy of the SIDs and cobble it together from press releases -- a lot of which have no quotes -- box scores and whatever other sources you can find.

 

LSU baseball used to be on TV every night, but when the SEC Network launched, they’re at the mercy of what ESPN decides to show, as ESPN now owns all of those rights. So you’re comparing apples and oranges.

 

Serious question.

The baseball stadium at LSU seats about 11,000. Why doesn't the school expand the seating?

 

If only the Pelicans had ownership that gave a flying fuck about the team ...