Parish Council disregards Eunice News’ lower bid for official journal

The St. Landry Parish Council selected the Daily World as its official journal without discussion and disregarded a lower bid from The Eunice News.
The Daily World, of Opelousas, bid $5.60 per column inch. The Eunice News bid was $4 column inch.
In a letter to the Council and the parish president, Darrell Guillory, Eunice New publisher and chief operating officer said, “What this means is that a full page of public notices in the Eunice News would cost taxpayers of St. Landry Parish a total of $504.00 compared to $1,176.00 in the Daily World. That’s quite a difference that we feel the citizens of St. Landry Parish should be aware of.”
The Eunice News bid was based on a six-column format while the Daily World was based on a 10-column format. The six-column format allows for a wider width, which has more words per inch.
The Eunice News is locally owned by the Moody family from Crowley.
The Daily World is owned by an out-of-state corporation.
Guillory pointed out in his letter that The Eunice News employs 25 parish citizens compared to two or three people employed at the Daily World.
The St. Landry Parish School Board recently named The Eunice News as its official journal. The School Board rotates its journal from year to year between The Eunice News and Daily World.
The Parish Council vote was 10-2 in awarding the official journal to the Daily World.
Voting for The Eunice News were Eunice members Jimmie Edwards and Coby Clavier.
Parish Council President Harold Taylor did not vote.