Manship to New Orleans: ‘We’re here to stay’

David Manship, publisher of The Advocate, told a crowd gathered in New Orleans this morning for a launch party of the Baton Rouge newspaper’s publication in that city that his company is committed to the Crescent City for the long haul. “We’re not here for a couple of days. We’re here to stay,” The Times-Picayune quotes Manship as saying. The publisher says The Advocate—which began handing out free copies of its New Orleans edition today—is responding to public outcry over The Times-Picayune‘s decision to scale back in print beginning next month. Home delivery of The Advocate is slated to begin Oct. 1, with the goal of distributing 10,000 copies in the New Orleans metro area each day. On that same day, NOLA Media Group will launch as a new company that executives say will combine the reach and journalistic resources of The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com into a single, digitally focused media enterprise. The Advocate‘s New Orleans bureau will be staffed primarily with former Times-Picayune employees. “They know the city, they know the people,” Manship says. “They know what’s good; they know what’s bad.” Meanwhile, NOLA Media is also planning to open an office in downtown Baton Rouge with a 16-member news and advertising staff charged with expanding and improving its news, sports and entertainment coverage in the Capital Region.