Mark Lorando

Mark Lorando, (born April 4, 1963) is editor and vice president of content of The Times-Picayune and its affiliate website, NOLA.com. He succeeded longtime Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss in September 2015.

Career

A longtime resident of Mandeville, Louisiana, Lorando is a graduate of Brother Martin High School (1981) and attended Loyola University New Orleans.

He began his newspaper career in 1981 as a clerk for The Times-Picayune’s television guide, TV Focus.^[1] From 1984 to 2000, he was a television columnist for The Times-Picayune and editor of TV Focus.

In 2000, Lorando was named Living section editor, overseeing the daily features sections of the newspaper. In 2009, he became Features editor, with added responsibility for The Times-Picayune’s weekly sections for entertainment, home and garden, and travel and a monthly upscale shopping guide. He replaced James O'Byrne, who became director of content for NOLA.com.

During the next few years, under Lorando, the Features staff was an early adopter of the practice of posting articles to the NOLA.com website before they appeared in print in The Times-Picayune, contrary to the newsroom’s habit at the time. The “digital first” approach was encouraged by owner of the newspaper and website, Advance Publications, which in late 2011 launched a dramatic transition to that model at its newspapers in Michigan.^[2] A similar transition was launched at The Times-Picayune in 2012.

Changes at The Times-Picayune

In the spring of 2012, Lorando was absent from the newsroom without explanation for two weeks. “Staffers presumed he was in Ann Arbor [Michigan], studying what came to be known as the ‘Michigan Model,’ because a garish and widely panned redesign of NOLA.com clearly modeled after MLive.com launched while he was gone, and the mysterious ‘Rapture’ meetings of a half-dozen senior editors began immediately upon his return.”^[3]

Those secret planning meetings prefaced the May 24, 2012, announcement by Amoss that The Times-Picayune would formally switch on October 1 to a digital-first approach, emphasizing NOLA.com and reducing its days of print publication, under a newly formed company, NOLA Media Group.^[4]

In August, Lorando was named Director of Metro Content effective October 1, reporting to Amoss and supervising news, entertainment, and photography and videography coverage throughout metropolitan New Orleans.^[5]

His role was expended in November 2014 to director of state and metro content, adding oversight of Baton Rouge and Washington coverage.^[6]

In September 2015, he succeeded Amoss as vice president of content and editor of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, overseeing the entire newsgathering operation, including Sports.

"I have spent literally my entire adult life in this newsroom," Lorando said. "It is a thrill and an honor to be given the opportunity to lead it during this time of extraordinary change in our industry and in our community."^[1]

References