The recently announced layoffs of 28 full- and 9 part-time content staffers in the editorial department of The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com will impact the company’s coverage of Baton Rouge news.
Three reporters in the Baton Rouge bureau have been transferred to the New Orleans bureau and a fourth recently left to take a job with another publication in New Orleans.
“Unfortunately, the reductions have resulted in a decrease in the amount of local Baton Rouge news that we cover as we complete our restructuring,” says David Francis, NOLA Media Group executive vice president. “But we will continue to deploy journalists from across our news operation to cover major news affecting Baton Rouge and Lafayette.”
Six reporters remain in NOLA.com’s Baton Rouge bureau, which is located on the ground floor of One American Place. Francis says the company has no plans to downsize its space in the downtown office tower.
When NOLA Media Group entered the Capital Region in 2012 with its Baton Rouge version of NOLA.com, the company described the initiative as “an entrepreneurial effort to significantly expand our footprint in a growing and vibrant city that offers a journalistically compelling mix of politics, sports and breaking news.”
Francis says the Baton Rouge bureau will continue to focus on state political news and coverage of SEC sports. Additionally, JR Ball is now a full-time columnist writing on Baton Rouge and state political issues.
‘We decided to take advantage of JR Ball’s powerful voice,” Francis says.
The recent changes at the publication were not unexpected. In June, Advance Publications, which owns The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com, indicated that NOLA Media Group would be merging with the company’s Alabama Media Group to form a “Southeast Regional Media Group.”
A local print publication NOLA Media Group launched in late 2012, BR Street, ceased publication in 2014.
—Stephanie Riegel
