alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting ...
newspaper established in 1981.
''Gambit'' features reporting about local politics, news, food and drink, arts, music, film, events, environmental issues and other topics, as well as listings. ''Gambit'' publishes 36,000 papers each Tuesday, which are distributed to 400 locations in the New Orleans metro area beginning Sunday afternoon.
In January 2009, the paper changed its name from ''Gambit Weekly'', to which it had been renamed in 1996, back to ''Gambit'', the name under which it had been founded in 1981. On April 9, 2018, Georges Media, the holding company for ''The New Orleans Advocate'', purchased ''Gambit''.
Content
Regular features include "Opening Gambit" (political news briefs), and "Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down," weekly awards for the city's "heroes and zeroes."
''Gambit'' also publishes a weekly editorial and issues endorsements in many political races, with two notable exceptions: it does not endorse in national elections, nor does it endorse in judicial elections (on a longstanding political belief that judges should be appointed, not elected).
The paper sponsors the annual Big Easy Theater Awards and Big Easy Music Awards, honoring New Orleans' best performing artists.
On October 1, 2007, ''Gambit'' launched Blog of New Orleans to supplement its website Best of New Orleans with daily updates on New Orleans news, politics, arts, music, sports, cuisine and local culture. Its other publications include ''CUE,'' a monthly home and fashion magazine and ''BRIDE & GROOM,'' a twice-annual wedding guide.
The paper's columnists include political editor
Clancy DuBos
Clancy is an Irish name coming from the Gaelic ''Mac Fhlannchaidh/Mac Fhlannchadha'', meaning "Son of the red/ruddy warrior" (Mac being for sons, ''Ní Fhlannchaidh/Ní Fhlannchadha'' would be for daughters), or as a hypocorism for Clarence (g ...
, who is also a political analyst and commentator on
WWL-TV
WWL-TV (channel 4) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Slidell-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WUPL (channel 54). Both stations share studios on Rampart S ...
. Past columnists include Chris Rose, Jeremy Alford, Andrei Codrescu and
Ronnie Virgets
Ronald Edward Virgets (April 4, 1942 – May 20, 2019) was an American writer, commentator, and journalist. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, he lived there for most of his life.
Background
Virgets attended Sacred HeartElementary School, St ...
. Other former writers and editors includ Michael Tisserand author of the books ''The Kingdom of Zydeco'' and ''Sugarcane Academy'', Scott Jordan, former spokesman for the Louisiana Democratic Party, and Rich Collins, a member of the children's music group Imagination Movers.
Awards
The paper has won many local and national honors, and former ''Gambit'' writer Katy Reckdahl was awarded
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...
's James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism in 2002 for her series on the mistreatment of the
homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
, and a 2002 Casey Journalism Center Medal for Distinguished Coverage of Children and Family Issues for her report titled "Louisiana Juvenile Justice" on the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth .
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...