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Daniel John "Dan" Shea Jr. (born April 2, 1958) is publisher and president of The Advocate (Louisiana) daily newspaper, based in Baton Rouge, and its website, the advocate.com.
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A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, and a longtime resident of Metairie, Louisiana, Shea is a graduate of Clark University (1981) and attended York University.
Career
Shea began his newspaper career in 1982 as a reporter at The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Connecticut. In 1986, he joined The Bond Buyer in New York City first as a reporter, then as assistant managing editor. As a reporter, Shea covered the securities industry, including an investigation of a tax fraud involving more than $3 billion worth of municipal bonds.
In 1988, Shea became business editor of The Record (Bergen County) in Hackensack, New Jersey. Pursuing an interest in newspaper technology, he became The Record's publishing systems manager in 1991, overseeing the purchase and installation of millions of dollars of new computer technology.
Shea joined The Times-Picayune in New Orleans in 1993 as managing editor, news, overseeing the newsroom operations, technology, copyediting, presentation and photography. During his tenure, his team won numerous awards for photography, graphics and design from the Society for News Design and the National Press Photographers Association.
Shea was the liaison with nola.com for many years when it was a separately run company. He also created The TP Store, an online source for Times-Picayune photos, books and page reproductions. He directed the publication of six books by The Times-Picayune staff.
Hurricane Katrina
After the evacuation of The Times-Picayune building in New Orleans the morning of Tuesday, August 30, 2005, due to rising floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina, Shea led a team of a dozen journalists to the offices of The Houma Courier in Houma, Louisiana.
There the staff put together an issue of the paper in portable document format, or pdf, to replicate the look of the printed paper, while a larger news operation was being assembled in Baton Rouge. The online-only editions were published for three days until the Courier began temporarily printing The Times-Picayune on Friday, September 2, 2005.
For its efforts, The Times-Picayune won the Gold Medal for Public Service and the Breaking News Award of the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes. The paper also won two other Pulitzer Prizes during Shea's tenure.
Changes at The Times-Picayune
On May 24, 2012, the paper's owner, Advance Publications, announced that the print edition of The Times-Picayune would be published three days a week beginning that fall.
News of the change and of deep cuts in staff—including Shea and the paper's other managing editor—was first revealed the night before in a blog post by The New York Times media writer David Carr (journalist).
The Advocate
In May 2013, Shea joined The Advocate as chief operating officer and later president and publisher, hired by the paper's new owner, John Georges.
The Advocate in September 2012 had launched a New Orleans edition each day to fill the perceived gap left by The Times-Picayune's cutback in publication. Under Shea, The Advocate relaunched its New Orleans edition in August 2013 as The New Orleans Advocate and later added The Acadiana Advocate, a third edition serving Lafayette and the Acadiana region.