Media update: State News reduces print schedule to five days

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The days when a newspaper could land in your driveway every day of the week will soon be a thing of the past in Delaware

The Delaware State News will join the News Journal in cutting its print publishing schedule and trimming the size of its tabloid format.

The Dover-based State News will move from seven to five days a week in the first week of July. Earlier, the News Journal was part of a corporate-wide move by Gannett to the Saturday paper. The State News will end its Monday and Friday editions.

The newspaper industry is now being squeezed by falling print advertising revenue and soaring newsprint costs. Moreover, daily circulation of newspapers nationwide has dropped by about 40 percent over the past 15 years.

Darel La Prade, publisher of the State News, Sunday addressed some of the concerns and observations from readers that include the tricky issue of how you cut the print schedule and not lower the subscription price.

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La Prade had a point in justifying no price change. For years, subscription price increases were held down as a way to keep circulation numbers up in working to convince advertisers that print was a good deal.

When the bottom dropped out of ad revenues in the early 2000s, subscription prices went up and circulation plunged further, with digital nickels not filling the revenue chasm.

While the Saturday paper has always been the weak link in the publishing schedule, ad revenues were strong for decades, thanks in large part to automotive ads that had a ready audience. That changed as dealers relied more on TV and digital. Content often went down to half a dozen local stories a day as staff shrunk.

For many of us, as the Saturday and Monday papers got tinier, the rubber band bundling never came off until recycling day. Home delivery stopped several months ago at our household and I can’t say that I have missed anything other than the lobbying ads that try to convince Joe Biden to do one thing or another.

Biden is said to read the News Journal most days.

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