Times-Picayune, nola.com bought by Advocate’s Dathel and John Georges to ensure ‘strong’ news company

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Natchitoches Times
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John Georges, center, and his wife Dathel, right, tell the staff of The New Orlans Advocate about his purchase of the Times-Picayune Thursday, May 2. Advocate editor Peter Kovacs flanks him at left and publisher Dan Shea is at right.

ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

Reprinted with permission

Seamless Gutters

New Orleans Advocate owners Dathel and John Georges have purchased The Times-Picayune and its nola.com website from the Newhouse family’s Advance Local Media. The Advocate will publish a seven-day, home-delivered newspaper in New Orleans using the brands and features of both publications. The new paper will debut in June.

The two papers’ websites will be combined under the nola.com brand around the same time. In Baton Rouge, the paper will remain The Advocate, as will the website. Baton Rouge readers will be unaffected.

At a time when local media companies are struggling and have cut back on news content, New Orleans has been an outlier, with the 177-year-old Advocate and the 182-year-old Picayune both covering the community for the past seven years.