The Scottsbluff Star-Herald, part of the Trails West Media Group of Lee Enterprises, follows many of the nation’s newspapers today in cutting the number of days it puts out a print edition.
For the Star-Herald, it’s going from 6 days to 3 days a week.
After years of publishing a print edition Tuesday-Sunday, the paper will now be printed only on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with the online edition on non-print days including the usual sections but with condensed versions of news stories.
Star-Herald Editor Joan von Kampen says each of the print editions will be an expanded version with more content. She describes the 3 weekly printed papers as comparable to having a “Sunday reading experience”.
Other papers that have cut back or, in some cases eliminated, print editions have cited economics with advertising down and costs up. Many have seen steady increases in online readership and subscriptions.
Von Kampen says all those factors are true for the Star-Herald, adding that as the region’s communities are changing, the newspaper is evolving, too, and adjusting to changing news consumption habits.
With only 3 print editions a week, Lee Enterprises has eliminated the Star-Herald’s printing operations with the papers all being printed at the Rapid City Journal, just as is done by the Chadron Record, with all papers delivered by mail – also like the Record.
The Record and Rapid City Journal are also owned by Lee Enterprises, which has 12 papers in Nebraska – a group that includes the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal-Star, and the papers in North Platte, Lexington and Grand Island. It also owns the Casper Star-Tribune.