The Times Picayune, a seven day a week newspaper serving New Orleans has announced it is cutting four days of print editions to publish on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the most valuable for advertisers.
According to USA Today, the average paid circulation of The Times Picayune newspaper was 133,557. I mention this to provide context to readers here. At 133,557 the publishing company made a call to cut print from seven to three days a week based an assessment of costs versus revenue.
Here’s part of the announcement (Matthews is thePresident of the company to manage the print and online content):
Mathews said the three days of publication were chosen in part so that the print edition is distributed across the entire week, but also because Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays have proved to be the most valuable days for the newspaper’s advertisers.
Mathews said the changes coming in the fall were necessitated by revolutionary upheaval in the newspaper industry. These changes made it essential for the news-gathering operation to evolve and become digitally focused, while continuing to maintain a strong team of professional journalists who have a command of the New Orleans metro area.
They are creating a new corporate structure to manage the combined online and print business. A bunch of people working on the existing newspaper will lose their jobs as you’d expect.
Here is another interesting quote from the announcement:
“We did not make this decision lightly,” said Mathews. “It’s the toughest part of transitioning from a print-centric to a digitally-focused company. Our employees make us the company we are today, and we will work hard during this transition to treat all of them with the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication they’ve shown over the years.”
Three smaller daily newspapers from the same family company are also cutting days published. The Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times will switch to publishing three days a week and increase focus on online access to news.
These newspapers are not the first nor will they be the last to reduce the days of the week they publish print editions.
I thought carefully before posting this news here because in then past when I have written about similar events some have commented that I am talking newspapers down and others have said it won’t happen here. There has been little discussion about how we should / could respond.
The changes we are seeing in newspaper print days in thenUS will come here. It is not a matter of it but when. I don’t see this as bad for newsagents. rather I see it as a business planning opportunity.