Executive Editor of The Advocate, Carl Redman

It is in gloomy times within the newspaper industry that Carl Redman assumes the top news job at The Advocate.

The 26-year Advocate veteran and longtime state government reporter became executive editor this month, replacing retiring Linda Lightfoot.

The Advocate finds itself working hard to find the right chemistry to compete in an ever more robust marketplace. Daily newspapers are losing readers and advertisers at an alarming rate, so Redman will play a key role in revitalizing Baton Rouge’s daily paper and finding a more sustainable business model, or face obscurity.

The company, privately owned by the Manship family, recently invested millions to revitalize the newspaper, building brand new production facilities, purchasing new presses and adopting a sleeker, easier-to-follow format.

Newsmen like Redman traditionally focused their energies on holding government officials accountable and keeping the voting public informed and empowered with information. Redman, 56, started his newspaper career in 1974 at a small weekly paper in St. Tammany Parish. He joined The Advocate in 1980.

“Back when I came into it, the daily newspaper was, I don’t want to say the only game in town, but we drove the train,” he says. “That’s changed now. We are not the primary source anymore for spot news.”

Like his predecessor, Redman came up through The Advocate’s Capitol Bureau, known more for its exhausting coverage of the incremental steps of government than daring new insights.

“People trust newspapers,” Redman says. “The challenge for us is to capitalize on that trust by expanding what we do into these new technology venues.”

As the paper’s top newsman, Redman’s focus will have to be reinvention—or, as they say within the company, convergence. It simply means finding ways for the paper, its Web site and sister TV station, WBRZ-Channel 2, to work together more efficiently to hold their audiences’ and advertisers’ interest.

Advocate reporters have begun appearing on the newspaper’s media partner, WBRZ Channel 2. Their joint Web site, 2theadvocate.com, recently underwent a major renovation and is getting more traffic and learning more revenue, Redman says.

The newspaper also is experimenting with a daily noon news segment on Channel 2. Advocate Internet broadcasts and joint news programs with a cable affiliate are under consideration.

“It’s about getting people the news wherever, whenever and however they want it. Our dead-tree edition is only one way to put the information in their hands,” Redman says. “The Internet is going to force the merging of electronic and traditional print journalism.”

The Advocate is not abandoning its print edition by any means. Redman says he’s also looking to expand its reach, particularly to areas outside of East Baton Rouge Parish. In 2005, The Advocate began including a local news insert with its Ascension Parish edition.

“That has been enormously successful,” Redman says. The paper will roll out local inserts in several other parishes this year. “It’s like having a local weekly newspaper inside your daily newspaper.”

“2007 is a pivotal time for this state,” Redman says. “We’re still reeling from Katrina and Rita. Nobody has a vision for what the state should be like 10 years from now, 15 years from now.”

In preparation for the upcoming state elections, Redman has directed the editorial staff to identify and report on the most crucial issues affecting the future of the state to boost public awareness and debate.

“We are in a unique position to help drive that debate,” Redman says.

The question is, for how long.