The April 4, 2007 front page of The Advocate |
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| Type | Morning daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Capital City Press |
| Publisher | David Manship |
| Editor | Milford Fryer |
| Founded | 1842 (as The Democratic Advocate) |
| Headquarters | 7290 Bluebonnet Blvd Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70810 United States |
| Official website | 2theadvocate.com |
The Advocate is the primary newspaper of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The paper consists of a Monday-Friday Advocate, as well as the weekend editions Saturday and the Sunday Advocate. As of 2004, it had a daily circulation of nearly 100,000 and a Sunday Advocate circulation of nearly 125,000.
The oldest ancestor of the modern paper was the Democratic Advocate, an anti-Whig, pro-Democrat periodical established in 1842. The paper went through several transformations, but was ultimately acquired as The State-Times, a paper with emphasis on local news, in 1909 by Charles Manship's newly-founded Capital City Press. In 1925, Manship also began publishing the companionary Advocate editions to focus on national news. The Manship family has since become an influential force in Baton Rouge, as they continue to maintain family ownership of Capital City Press and other media outlets.
The State-Times, an afternoon publication, ceased in October 1991. The Advocate hence remains the sole descendant of the original 1842 paper.
The paper maintains bureaus throughout south Louisiana as well as in Washington, D.C.
David William Thomas, a Louisiana State University journalism professor, published a small Baton Rouge newspaper in the early 1920s, which was acquired by The Advocate. He then published papers in Hammond, and Minden, where he was elected mayor in 1936.
From 1949 to her death in 1970, Margaret Dixon was The Advocate's first woman managing editor. Veteran journalist Kenneth L. Dixon (no relation to Margaret) also worked there.
A popular Advocate columnist is Ed Cullen, whose "Attic Salt" appears on Sundays. He is also a National Public Radio essayist and the author of Letter in a Woodpile, a collection of some of his Morning Advocate and NPR selections.
In 2007, the newspaper lost three of its key staff with the deaths of Capitol Bureau Chief John LaPlante, health reporter and author of "The Patient Person" columns Laurie Smith Anderson and environmental writer Michael P. Dunne. LaPlante died in Texas in a drowning accident, and Anderson and Dunne succumbed to cancer.
It presents itself as the "Independent Voice of South Louisiana." Today, it maintains this tradition, although this does not preclude it from taking positions and offering political endorsements.