Beginning Oct. 7,
The Herald will publish its printed newspaper each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The Herald first announced the change Wednesday in a letter to readers from Doug Bennett, CEO of Ballantine Communications Inc.
“This is a business decision, made to support our journalism,” Bennett said. “Previously, the majority of our readers preferred the printed page, but now the majority of our audience consumes the Herald’s content on websites, cellphones, social media and email.”
Shelly Corwin, director of circulation and operations, said current print subscribers will receive the same number of issues they’ve purchased.
“Once we discontinue printing the Monday paper, we will extend print subscriptions for the amount of Mondays left on their current subscriptions,” Corwin said.
For example, if your print subscription has 20 remaining Mondays, it will be extended by 20 publication days – Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Digital subscriptions will not be affected.
Bennett said layoffs will not occur based on ceasing newspaper publication on Monday.
“We will continue to look at employees to ensure they are placed in the proper place,” he said. “While some areas have seen reductions, we have seen growth in other areas.”
Cost savings by eliminating the Monday edition come through savings in printing and distribution costs, he said.
“Monday was the only edition that lacked advertiser support,” he said.
Newspaper readers will not lose popular content.
“Popular columns and features from the Monday edition will move to Wednesday and Saturday,” said Senior Editor Trent Stephens. “Action Line will publish Saturday in the Weekend Edition, and our feature about locals, called ‘Around the Corners,’ will publish Friday.”
Otherwise, the newspapers on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday will remain unchanged.
The Wednesday edition will include the recently added Arts & Entertainment preview page and the news, Food and Sports sections.
Friday’s sections will include City/State/Region, Arts & Entertainment, Bayfield and Ignacio and Sports.
The weekend edition on Saturday will continue to feature the best of the Herald’s news reporting and the popular Southwest Life section. It also will contain a sports and periodic outdoors section, a business section, an opinion section, travel and religion news, comics, puzzles and classifieds.
The Herald continues to publish news first at durangoherald.com and to extend its reach.
“The Herald has more Durango readers today than at any time in its history,” Stephens said. He added that the Herald’s readership throughout Colorado and New Mexico also has grown.
Last week, responding to readers interested in regional issues, the Herald brought a statewide issue home to Durango readers in a collaborative news series that focused on the evolving landscape for mobile homes in Colorado.
The project – Parked: Half the American Dream – is a collaboration between The Durango Herald, The Colorado Sun and a dozen Colorado news organizations. Journalists across the state reported on the evolving landscape for mobile homes and how corporate ownership has eroded our largest source of unsubsidized, affordable housing. In Durango, the rising cost of mobile home ownership and lot rentals has forced longtime residents to find alternatives to affordable housing. Longtime Durango residents are moving out.
Stephens said the collaboration came in part from the realization that newspapers must sometimes combine their efforts to better serve their readers.
The Herald eliminated three of its seven printed editions in April 2017, citing production costs and the nationwide trend of readers moving to online readership.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
