 |
| Photo: savingcommunityjournalism.com |
The sister newspapers will continue to publish online seven days a week. News, sports, opinion, comics and obituaries will be part of the e-paper. The reduced printing schedule will result in expanded newsprint editions Thursday through Sunday, Patrick McArdle of the Herald reported.
Company executives announced the decision to employees on Monday evening. R. John Mitchell, chairman and president of the Herald Association Inc., said the changes will allow the company to continue its mission without cutting additional jobs.
“I think we were at the place that all newspapers get to currently,” Mitchell said. "We've cut, I think, all the jobs we can without really decimating the newsroom. This is an attempt to keep from having dramatic layoffs in the newsroom and to try and monetize the technical base we've built for social media.”
Catherine Nelson, publisher and CEO, said the company would be lax if administrators didn't pursue another model for delivering the news. She described the traditional standard of printing newspapers and driving them to people's homes as archaic and said that business model is no longer cost-effective.
She said that most people now get their news from their computers or smartphones; technology has become so ubiquitous, even in rural Vermont, that e-papers can be delivered as effectively and consistently as if paper copies were brought to people's doorsteps.
Mitchell said most of the newspapers' revenue is generated by the print edition of the paper. His goal is to expand online revenue so that both sides contribute equally.
The two newspapers eliminated the Sunday news desk in 2009 and laid off 20 people over the course of a year, Anne Galloway of VTDigger.org reported. More layoffs have followed. The Times Argus sold its building in Barre several years ago, and the Herald building has been also been up for sale. In December, the newspapers dropped publication of the New England Business Journals.
Like newspapers around the country, the Herald and Times Argus have struggled to sustain advertising revenue with the changing tides of technology and online news.
The company says since 2010, readers have purchased 49,500 digital subscriptions. The combined print subscriptions of both newspapers is 18,000. Mitchell said the company will revamp websites for both papers. Both papers will still be considered dailies by industry convention.
The Herald won the Pulitzer in 2001 for editorials about the legalization of civil unions.
The Rutland Herald was founded in 1794, the Times Argus in 1897.
from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/28NAb3A Two Vermont newspapers to roll back print editions - Entrepreneur Generations
0 Response to "Two Vermont newspapers to roll back print editions - Entrepreneur Generations"
Post a Comment