New Orleans Advocate purchases Times-Picayune, nola.com

From The Pipeline, interesting stuff in New Orleans.

We have some important news to share with you. New Orleans Advocate owners John and Dathel Georges have purchased The Times-Picayune and nola.com from Advance Local.

We recognize that this may come as a surprise to many of you. We want to be clear – this is not part of a strategy to sell additional Advance Local companies, which we have no interest in doing.

We have tremendous pride in what our colleagues at NOLA Media Group have accomplished over the years. And until very recently, we had no intention of leaving New Orleans, one of the most special and resilient cities in the world. However, the Georges and Advance Local agreed that this transaction presented the best way to preserve the quality of journalism that both news organizations are known for, and better serve the New Orleans community now and in the future.

This decision was exceptionally difficult as The Times-Picayune has been part of our Advance Publications family for 57 years. As you know, The Times-Picayune has a rich history. Most notably, it served as a lifeline for New Orleans residents during Hurricane Katrina with its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism and community involvement. And nola.com has been the largest news website in Louisiana for many years, reaching more than six million readers a month.

We are very reluctant to leave New Orleans, our talented employees and loyal subscribers and advertisers, but we are confident that The Advocate will continue our history of excellent journalism and community service.

We are working with The Advocate on a detailed transition plan. Once we have it finalized, updates will be provided to our colleagues in New Orleans and to those of you who will have roles in assisting with this transition.

We want to reiterate that we are firmly committed to our existing businesses and working with you to figure out the future of local journalism. In addition, we will continue to invest in new initiatives such as The Tylt, which had another banner year as the largest social polling platform on the internet, and Red Clay Media, which continues to do innovative work building new social and news brands.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Randy Siegel & Caroline Harrison

 

Not sure if this is related but are they getting started already?

 

I was told that folks are getting 60 days notice and severance and "some" jobs will be opened up but it sounds, well, not quite so good.