News
In a move that reflects the overall economy, and one that many newspapers throughout the country are making, the Tahoe Daily Tribune will reduce its days of publication to Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, effective Feb. 2.
“This is not a decision that we took lightly,” said Publisher Mary Jurkonis. “In light of unprecedented hikes in the cost of newsprint this past year, and the overall realities of our current economy, we had to make some moves to reduce expenses.”
The Tahoe Daily Tribune had been publishing Mondays through Fridays.
“This is not the end of an era as much as it’s the beginning of an era,” Jurkonis said. “We’re positioning the Tahoe Daily Tribune to be more of a 21st-century newspaper as we shift more resources to focus on developing more local stories and breaking that content online every day.
“We’ll be in a position to actually develop more local news, not less, since we’ll be freeing up personnel from the day-to-day crush of press deadlines,” Jurkonis said.
Jurkonis acknowledged that changes of this nature sometimes aren’t easy.
“People become accustomed to reading the paper at the breakfast table, so some routines may be disrupted,” Jurkonis said. “But increasingly, studies and our own Web traffic shows that more and more people are reading the morning paper online.”
In order to respond to this demand, a new feature will be added beginning Feb. 23: the iTrib newsletter every Monday. E-mails will go out inviting residents and visitors to sign up to receive the iTrib, which will contain a recap of weekend news and events, slideshows/photo galleries and a recap of weekend sports. The iTrib will also include that day’s crossword and sudoku puzzles.
Jurkonis stressed that it’s important for readers to understand that the Tahoe Daily Tribune news team is still going to be functioning on a daily news cycle, and there will be the latest news every day as usual, albeit online some mornings.
“The difference now is that we’ll be delivering more robust newspapers on the days we do publish, with more local news and information than we did before,” Jurkonis said. “This puts us in a better position to break news online and better utilize the tahoedailytribune.com Web site, which is a tremendous resource for our readers.”
Jurkonis stressed that developing a workable plan that would minimize the impact on readers and advertisers was the foremost goal in the mind set of the paper’s management team as it looked at various alternatives.
“We take our responsibility to the community seriously,” Jurkonis said. “This three-day schedule for the printed product will still allow us to deliver news in a timely fashion. Likewise, breaking news and day-to-day updates will shift from print to tahoedailytribune.com.”
The Tribune will remain on this new schedule for the foreseeable future. However, Jurkonis notes that changes in the marketplace might, at some point, dictate returning to a more frequent publishing schedule.
“The economy will ultimately rebound, growth in the region will pick back up, so it’s difficult to sit here and say what might happen a year or two down the road.”
“This is not a decision that we took lightly,” said Publisher Mary Jurkonis. “In light of unprecedented hikes in the cost of newsprint this past year, and the overall realities of our current economy, we had to make some moves to reduce expenses.”
The Tahoe Daily Tribune had been publishing Mondays through Fridays.
“This is not the end of an era as much as it’s the beginning of an era,” Jurkonis said. “We’re positioning the Tahoe Daily Tribune to be more of a 21st-century newspaper as we shift more resources to focus on developing more local stories and breaking that content online every day.
“We’ll be in a position to actually develop more local news, not less, since we’ll be freeing up personnel from the day-to-day crush of press deadlines,” Jurkonis said.
Jurkonis acknowledged that changes of this nature sometimes aren’t easy.
“People become accustomed to reading the paper at the breakfast table, so some routines may be disrupted,” Jurkonis said. “But increasingly, studies and our own Web traffic shows that more and more people are reading the morning paper online.”
In order to respond to this demand, a new feature will be added beginning Feb. 23: the iTrib newsletter every Monday. E-mails will go out inviting residents and visitors to sign up to receive the iTrib, which will contain a recap of weekend news and events, slideshows/photo galleries and a recap of weekend sports. The iTrib will also include that day’s crossword and sudoku puzzles.
Jurkonis stressed that it’s important for readers to understand that the Tahoe Daily Tribune news team is still going to be functioning on a daily news cycle, and there will be the latest news every day as usual, albeit online some mornings.
“The difference now is that we’ll be delivering more robust newspapers on the days we do publish, with more local news and information than we did before,” Jurkonis said. “This puts us in a better position to break news online and better utilize the tahoedailytribune.com Web site, which is a tremendous resource for our readers.”
Jurkonis stressed that developing a workable plan that would minimize the impact on readers and advertisers was the foremost goal in the mind set of the paper’s management team as it looked at various alternatives.
“We take our responsibility to the community seriously,” Jurkonis said. “This three-day schedule for the printed product will still allow us to deliver news in a timely fashion. Likewise, breaking news and day-to-day updates will shift from print to tahoedailytribune.com.”
The Tribune will remain on this new schedule for the foreseeable future. However, Jurkonis notes that changes in the marketplace might, at some point, dictate returning to a more frequent publishing schedule.
“The economy will ultimately rebound, growth in the region will pick back up, so it’s difficult to sit here and say what might happen a year or two down the road.”
