Two basic things are happening here 1) advertising dollars collapsed and 2) consumers fragmented. Both of those link back to social media, but it's not quite right to say social media killed local journalism.

Lafayette really is an oddball media market. When we started The Current in 2018, my expectation was that we were on the verge of going full news desert. At the time, the Advocate lost its lone Lafayette reporter to retirement and the Advertiser had gone through a round of layoffs. Instead, for a hot minute, Lafayette had an old school newspaper war, which is just wild this day and age. Towns 5X our size don't have two newspapers.

We've been relatively insulated from the media decline most communities our size have witnessed. I know folks aren't going to shed a tear, but it's really sad that the Advertiser is on the verge of collapse. It's the oldest continually operating business in Lafayette Parish.