NOLA.com adding Baton Rouge reporters

Published Aug 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm (Updated Aug 10, 2012)

In the latest example of the rapidly changing landscape of local media, NOLA Media Group—the company that publishes The Times-Picayune and nola.com—is expanding its online product into the Baton Rouge market.

Word of that development comes just weeks after The Advocate announced it will expand its circulation in New Orleans this fall, when The Times-Picayune reduces its print publication to three days a week.

Officials with NOLA Media Group did not return calls seeking comment, but sources familiar with the plan say the company is staffing up locally and will be increasing its online coverage of Baton Rouge news, sports and politics. A post on the company's website says as much.

An online ad for a "managing producer, Baton Rouge," says, "This is 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. You will step in as a main player in launching this digitally focused coverage effort."

Experts say it's a shrewd move, especially since the media group has little digital competition in the Baton Rouge market. However, the company faces two challenges. First, it needs to staff up adequately and provide quality journalism, according to Bob Ritter, professional in residence at the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication.

"I also think they will have to develop their brand on a more statewide basis," says Ritter, a former editor of The Denver Post. "I think that will be the real trick."