NEW ORLEANS – Ricky Mathews, President of Advance Media Southeast, has announced he will transition out of his role as President of NOLA Media Group | The Times-Picayune after completing the search for his successor.
Mathews said he will continue in his role as president of Advance Media Southeast, and will work with Advance Local, the parent of NOLA Media Group, on a number of company-wide initiatives.
“Leading our extraordinarily talented team in New Orleans has been an honor,” said Mathews, who became President of NOLA Media Group, which operates NOLA.com and publishes The Times-Picayune, in 2012, after serving as President of Advance Alabama since 2009.
“We’ve made tremendous progress since the challenging launch of our new digitally-focused company four years ago,” he said. “The Times-Picayune is one of the most read newspapers in America and NOLA.com's reach is No. 1 in the country for markets the size of New Orleans or larger. And we have built a digital ad solutions business second to none. I look forward to first finding and then helping ensure my successor’s success.”
Steve Newhouse, Chairman of Advance.net, which oversees Advance Local, said “Ricky did a great job managing a difficult transition. During his tenure, NOLA Media Group successfully grew its digital audience and revenue. But what Ricky did best was to lead his company through change while continuing to produce fantastic journalism. The nationally acclaimed ‘Louisiana Purchased’ series, the intensely local New Orleans Neighborhoods project and our recent investigation of poor police response times, which prefaced sweeping reforms, are but three examples that made us proud.”
Working closely with Mathews in the national search for a new President of NOLA Media Group will be Randy Siegel, the President of Advance Local.
“Ricky has been a superb leader inside the organization as well as in the different communities we serve,” Siegel said. “I look forward to working more closely with him in the future.”
Under Mathews’ leadership, reps with the NOLA Media Group said they built the largest multi-platform audience of any media company in Louisiana. NOLA.com reaches more than 5 million people every month. When combined with The Times-Picayune and its 560,000 regular readers, NOLA Media Group connects with 72 percent of all adults in the New Orleans metropolitan region, according to Scarborough and comScore.
