Lee to make most papers weeklies, under a definition that's getting archaic; be frank with readers in making the move

One of the newspaper industry's oldest conventions, that a paper is considered a weekly if it's published three or fewer times a week and a daily if it's published four or more times a week, is gradually vanishing in the age of 24/7 digital publishing.

That was driven home by the plan of Lee Enterprises, a major national chain, "to reduce the number of days it prints in most of its newspapers to three days per week," as reported by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan, a digital-only States Newsroom nonprofit that serves the state where Lee owns five dialy papers. It broke the news, based on multiple sources; Ehrlick is a former Lee employee.

"Four people who spoke to the Daily Montanan on condition of anonymity confirmed the company is planning to reduce its printing schedule in all publications, except for 20 of its largest titles," Ehrlick reports. "It’s unclear how that will affect the five newspapers in Montana." Those are the Billings Gazette, the Missoulian, the Ravalli Republic, the Montana Standard in Butte and the Helena Independent Record in the state capital. "Some sources were told the change would take place this summer," Ehrlick writes. "Repeated inquiries to Lee officials at both the corporate and state levels were not returned."

Papers have been reducing print frequency for years, but the trend is accelerating, and a historic tipping point seems at hand. "Print frequency has long been a term used to understand the audience and purpose of publications," Kirsten Staples writes for Editor & Publisher, in a story with advice about how to make and manage such a change. 

John Newby (Photo via E&P)

John Newby, who operates the consultancies 360 Media Alliance and Truly-Local, told Staples, “Reducing frequency is a local decision based on local parameters. What is right for one community or market may not be the correct path in another. . . . Reducing several days can add up to quite a few dollars. But buyer beware, not all this newfound revenue will be realized if you haven't factored in the loss of subscribers. Depending on the market, this hit ranges from 2-3% to greater than 15%. Many will come back in the future, but there will be some short-term subscriber erosion.”

The top concern should be the readers, and newspapers must understand them and their needs, Newby said. "Newby recalled a time when he worked with a newspaper considering reducing its print frequency, increasing its rates and moving the publication to mail. They eventually decided it would be best to make all changes at once to avoid disrupting their readership multiple times that year."

Newby recalled, “The publisher and editor did a great job telling the public what was happening. They discussed financials, [difficulty] finding carriers, newsprint costs, market trends and much more. They treated their readers as family and conveyed the reason for the changes honestly. At the end of the day, they lost very few readers and gained a ton of respect simply by being honest with their readers upfront about the reasons for the changes. That is what actually builds your brand — honesty and transparency.”

Likewise, Newby said, savings should be used for improvements, not just used to stabilize the bottom line. “If the newly found revenue is not invested back into the product, all you have done is extract from your product, providing the reader with a less delightful reading experience," Newby said. "To survive, our industry still needs to find new revenue verticals that help sustain the news product. I don't have all the answers on that front, but I know we continue to ignore many verticals as the digital world passes us by. E-commerce, Ai, creative and revenue-producing loyalty programs ... and the list goes on.”

George Coleman, general manager of the Victoria Advocate in Texas, told Staples that when he cut print days from five to three at Tennessee's Lebanon Democrat about five years ago, “We doubled up on comics, puzzles, Dear Abby and other features we knew they would miss. As a result, the papers were larger in page count than the previous Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday papers. We still produced content every day of the week, so our subscribers had access to the most current information on our website. From an expense standpoint, the biggest loser of this move was the post office. By making this move, we did not impact our employees in any way. Furthermore, the readers received all the content they were used to receiving. Also, by printing every other day, we kept our print-only readers informed of the local obituaries, which are very important to older readers.”