The Town Talk

The Town Talk (Alexandria)

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Gannett Company
Editor	Paul V. Carty (effective July 7, 2003)
Founded	March 17, 1883
Headquarters	1201 Third Street, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, USA
Circulation	19,500 daily; 27,500 Sundays
Website	thetowntalk.com

The Town Talk, started as The Daily Town Talk in 1883 and later named the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, is the major newspaper of Central Louisiana. It is published by Gannett in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the economic center of Central Louisiana.

The daily newspaper has a circulation of some 19,500 daily and 27,500 on Sundays. It covers the news primarily in seven parishes with a population of approximately 400,000. The coverage area reaches from the Mississippi River on the east to the Texas border on the west.

The Town Talk was born on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1883. It was owned by the original Irish-American founders, including Edgar Hammond McCormick and Henarie Morrison Huie, and their heirs until 1996, when it was sold to Central Newspapers of Indianapolis, then the 15th-largest newspaper company in the United States. The parent company was called “McCormick & Company Inc.” Central Newspapers was purchased in 2000 by Gannett of McLean, Virginia, was owned until his death by Eugene S. Pulliam, the maternal uncle of former Vice President of the United States J. Danforth Quayle.

In 1962, Joe D. Smith, Jr. (1922–2008) became publisher of The Town Talk. He was the husband of Jane Wilson Smith (1922–1992), a McCormick heir whose family owned the newspaper. Over the years, Smith was also the general manager, president, and chairman of the board. Under his tutelage, The Town Talk became the first daily newspaper in Louisiana to become computerized. He took the view that newspapers were expected to foster growth and improvement in the community as well as report the news. Some four years after the death of Jane Smith, Smith sold to Central Newspapers for $62 million.

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