Archdiocese of New Orleans "Clarion Herald" to Cease Publication

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After 63 years of bringing news and feature stories about the local Roman Catholic church to the city’s faithful, The Clarion Herald will cease publication in its current form at the end of June.

The move comes after a committee of local church pastors voted last summer to eliminate two main sources of funding for the newspaper, both of which come directly from parish coffers: 1% of weekly collections and a $15 fee assessed each Catholic school family.

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I know what you are thinking... why is an article about a newspaper owned by the Archdiocese being discussed on the More Sports Board?

Well... it is simple.

Before the time of the More Sports Board, GeauxPreps, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, and tv/newspaper giving more time and effort to covering high school sports, one could argue that the single best source for high school sports news in NOLA was none other than the Clarion Herald.

Especially with respect to the Catholic League.

The Catholic paper, every week, would have a few pages dedicated to high school sports. Stories about games and coaches and players. Team ranking. All district / All Catholic League teams. Even covered some publc schools and some of the smaller Catholic Schools.

The guy who ran the paper for many years, and will retire as the paper dies, is Peter Finney Jr, son of Peter Finney Sr, perhaps the best sports reporter / columnist the city of New Orleans has ever seen.

Over the years, many well known local sports journalists would contribute articles to this paper.

Today, it definetly does not have the impact it once did on high school sports coverage. But in the 80s, 90s, and even into the 2000s, especially pre-Katrina, it certainly did.

They say they will try to conitnue in some other capacity, but with the Archdiocense directly taking it over as a arm of their PR department as opposed to an "independent" entity... I doubt sports coverage will be a focus.