The Advocate

Review by eFreeware

The Advocate is the Android app from Georges Media, the publisher behind the New Orleans title of the same name, and it exists to put south Louisiana news on your phone. That covers the Baton Rouge area, LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints coverage, and Louisiana politics, alongside the paper's daily e-edition. If that patch of the map is home, or the place you keep an eye on, the app is built around exactly that territory.

What I like about the shape of it is the pairing: a feed that the developer says updates around the clock, plus a digital replica of the day's paper for readers who prefer the finished product to the rolling one. Those are two different reading habits, and the app serves both. It has been on Google Play since May 2012, which makes it one of the older local-news apps still getting updates.

A local title for readers inside its coverage area

This is a regional newspaper app, and it behaves like one. The value is concentrated in a specific place and a specific set of subjects: Baton Rouge-area news, LSU athletics, the Saints and the statehouse. Readers who follow those threads will find plenty to open.

That narrowness is not a flaw so much as the point. A local paper's app is only as useful as your connection to the place. If south Louisiana politics and sports are part of your week, this is a straightforward way to keep up with them from a phone.

The other group it suits is former residents and expats who want to stay current with home. Between the live feed and the e-edition, there is enough here to follow a story as it develops rather than catching up days later.

Live news, alerts and the daily e-edition

The core of the app is a rolling news feed that the developer describes as updated 24/7, covering the topics above as they happen. Alongside it sits the e-edition, a digital version of the printed paper delivered each day. The two complement each other: the feed for breaking developments, the e-edition for the considered layout of the day's stories.

You can turn on alerts for the biggest headlines. For a regional title, headline alerts are a way to keep up with the news. The app also lets you push stories out to social platforms if you want to pass something along.

Reading controls, search and a favorites option round out the package. Search matters more than it sounds in a news app, since it is how you find the earlier coverage behind today's story, and favorites give you a place to keep the pieces you mean to come back to.

Free to download, with ads and in-app purchases

The app costs nothing to install. It carries advertising, and it offers in-app purchases.

Beyond that, the practical question is whether a regional paper gives you enough for the space it takes up. For readers inside the coverage area, the answer is likely yes; the e-edition alone is a substantial daily product. For everyone else, the calculus is different.

How it compares with the alternatives

The obvious comparison is a general news aggregator, which will hand you national and international coverage from many outlets but treats Baton Rouge as one small feed among thousands. The Advocate goes the other way: one region, covered deeply.

A dedicated sports app is the other route for LSU and Saints followers, and it will go deeper on scores and analysis than a newspaper app can. What it will not do is carry the politics, the local government coverage and the e-edition in the same place. Choosing between them is mostly a question of whether you want one app for the region or two apps for its parts.

If you already pay for a national paper's subscription, adding a local title is a different purchase rather than a replacement. Local news is the part national outlets cover least, and that is the gap this app fills.

A keeper for readers who follow south Louisiana

The Advocate is worth installing if south Louisiana is your news patch. It combines a live feed with the daily e-edition, adds alerts for major headlines, and gives you search and favorites to organize what you read.

The caveats are the ones that come with any regional news app: the coverage is deep but geographically narrow.

My recommendation is for readers with a genuine stake in Baton Rouge-area news, LSU and Saints coverage, or Louisiana politics, and for anyone who wants the paper's daily edition on a phone. If your interest in the region is passing, a general news app will cover more ground with less of it about Louisiana.

What's new in version 4.1.0

Bug fixes and performance improvements