The latest newspapers to take that step is the McPherson Sentinel and some of GateHouse's other Kansas publications. In her column explaining the change to Sentinel readers, Managing Editor Katie Stockstill spends so much time explaining the conditions that forced the change that she does not even tell the readers about the elimination of the Monday edition until the ninth paragraph:
Beginning next week, The McPherson Sentinel will no longer publish a Monday newspaper.
The paper will be published five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday.
“With skyrocketing newsprint and fuel prices, the writing was on the wall that we were going to have to do something drastic to keep our expenses in line,” said McPherson Sentinel publisher Gary Mehl. “To cut one publishing day has been one of the most difficult decisions of my 43-year career at The Sentinel. I have wrestled for some time with this and ultimately had to come to the realization that in order to remain financially stable, I had no choice but to eliminate our weakest publishing day.”
The Sentinel is not alone in the move. The El Dorado, Wellington, Derby and Augusta local newspapers are all cutting at least one day of publishing.
The decrease in publishing days will not affect The Sentinel’s content. The number of pages published each week will be about the same, but the newspaper’s dedication to local news will be stronger than ever.
I expect it will not be long before we hear of the same decision (or worse) happening to The Carthage Press.
Katie Stockstill is the managing editor? You've got to be kidding me.
ReplyDelete