2004 - Advertiser Official Editorial on across the board UL name usage

[Bunch24]

Flash Back to when the entire Daily Advertiser had a clue.

Juli Metzger was the best executive editor The Daily Advertiser ever had.

She understood her audience.

Juli now owns JMG http://www.julimetzger.com/

Thanks Juli, we remember.

I, respectfully, will disagree with that statement. I'm sure several former sports employees and newsroom employees will also disagree.

I won't go into details, because personally I have nothing against her, but as an executive editor she didn't know the first thing about sports. I'm fairly certain she wrote that column at the behest of Kevin Foote and Bruce Brown, who argued heavily in meetings to drop the @Lafayette tag in stories.

As for the "understanding her audience", again I completely disagree. Go back to when she was there and read some of the stories that we were running. A lot of what was written was from a "Yankee" perspective, as Kevin would like to say. Too many stories trying to explain our culture to our readers. Our readers knew our culture, they didn't need any 'splainin.

[Turbine]

I, respectfully, will disagree with that statement. I'm sure several former sports employees and newsroom employees will also disagree.

I won't go into details, because personally I have nothing against her, but as an executive editor she didn't know the first thing about sports. I'm fairly certain she wrote that column at the behest of Kevin Foote and Bruce Brown, who argued heavily in meetings to drop the @Lafayette tag in stories.

As for the "understanding her audience", again I completely disagree. Go back to when she was there and read some of the stories that we were running. A lot of what was written was from a "Yankee" perspective, as Kevin would like to say. Too many stories trying to explain our culture to our readers. Our readers knew our culture, they didn't need any 'splainin.

Here is what she understood that locals overlook; Half of Lafayette's population is/are imports and locals assume everyone is from here.

[Just1More]

I, respectfully, will disagree with that statement. I'm sure several former sports employees and newsroom employees will also disagree.

I won't go into details, because personally I have nothing against her, but as an executive editor she didn't know the first thing about sports. I'm fairly certain she wrote that column at the behest of Kevin Foote and Bruce Brown, who argued heavily in meetings to drop the @Lafayette tag in stories.

As for the "understanding her audience", again I completely disagree. Go back to when she was there and read some of the stories that we were running. A lot of what was written was from a "Yankee" perspective, as Kevin would like to say. Too many stories trying to explain our culture to our readers. Our readers knew our culture, they didn't need any 'splainin.

OK... Turbine overshot the target. She didn't understand her audience. But, she understood the name issue. And if a Yankee gets it... so should everyone else.

[Frenchie35]

I quote Juli Metzger, "I know not everyone will agree", now who will not agree with you? Anyone on the DA Staff?????

[California Cajun]

Well unless you email them and tell them why you cancelled your subscription they will hardly notice, nor care that they lost you as a subscriber.

When I called to cancel I was asked why and I told him.

[Bunch24]

I quote Juli Metzger, "I know not everyone will agree", now who will not agree with you? Anyone on the DA Staff?????

Certainly nobody on the sports staff. I can't speak for anyone else in the newsroom, but the sports staff dropped the Lafayette long before the news made it a paper-wide thing. I was in on a couple of the discussions about implementing the policy of using University of Louisiana, and believe me, that was largely spearheaded by sports. I vividly remember Kevin explaining to Julie that UL (@Lafayette) was no different than Texas @Austin or North Carolina @Chapel Hill or Michigan @Ann Arbor or (GASP) LSU @Baton Rouge.

Trust me, as much as people like to think differently, when I was there, it was very much a pro-UL staff. At the time of Juli Metzger, our sports editor was a UL guy, assistant sports editor was a UL guy, UL beat writer was a UL guy, LSU beat writer was a UL guy, IceGators beat writer was not a UL guy.

There was not a single person on our staff that resembled an LSU fan. In fact, my memory ain't the greatest but I don't know that we've ever had an LSU grad on the sports staff. News was a lot different, half of the reporters were LSU grads (and obviously LSU fans).

[Turbine]

Should be interesting to see how Sunday's editorial differs from 2004.

[CajunRed]

I will be mailing a copy of the 2004 editorial to the current editor.

[AstroCajun]

I will cancel if I don't like what I read Sunday.

Pretty sad if they are thinking about a reversal on a 9 year policy.

Incredibly sad given how much better game day and postgame coverage has been this year.

I can't believe we are even taking about this.

[HoustonCajun]

I will be mailing a copy of the 2004 editorial to the current editor.

Let's read the just released editorial admittance of an error being made with regards the name. All is being corrected - NOW. What happened in the past happened. Look what things were like under Dr. A and how they have now changed under Dr. S. The DA has changed. Finally. Everything regarding UL is coming together. The community has been galvanized by this name issue. It is a new day for UL. Let's embrace it and move on.