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 T-G publisher Hugh Jones [Click to enlarge] |
As it announced last week in a letter to its subscribers, the Times-Gazette will no longer be publishing a Monday edition.
"We want to be clear that this change is not due to economic necessity," said publisher Hugh Jones Tuesday. "It's the culmination of a plan that's been in the works for several months with the goal of making better use of our resources and delivering better content to our readers.
"We're placing our company in a position of strength to better improve our print and online products," said Jones. "Although there's been a lot of gloom and doom about the newspaper industry across the country, those major cuts have mostly taken place at large metropolitan newspapers.
"Like most community newspapers, we are weathering this tough economy well."
The Times-Gazette is not facing the widespread layoffs that have taken place at larger papers, Jones said, and has instead added some part-time positions in critical technical areas to help prepare itself for the future.
The Times-Gazette has recently invested in an upgrade of its news management software, newsroom computers, and its production department's computer software and hardware.
When the Times-Gazette added its Sunday edition in August of 2005, the plan was for Sunday to become the "flagship" edition of the paper on a weekly basis, Jones said.
Since its inception, the Sunday edition has grown and is the biggest seller of the week, but the management team has been discussing ways to continue to improve it.
The newspaper recognized that although it was not losing money on its Monday paper, the Tuesday through Friday editions would benefit with the addition of new, relevent content, already available to the paper, that had not previously been used.
A decision was made, therefore, to cease publication of the Monday paper and reallocate its manpower and other resources to the remaining five days of publication -- Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, plus continue to grow the Internet component of the business and prepare for new ways of delivering information.
Life & Leisure
With the addition of the Life & Leisure section, the Sunday Times-Gazette will now consist of three full sections instead of two.
"Our new Life & Leisure section will offer our readers a variety of lighter fare and some new items we think people will really enjoy," said editor John Philleo. "The name of the section says it all -- it's about life and leisure."
Readers can expect heartwarming features about their neighbors, plenty of recipes and other food-related features, and a variety of stories focusing on parenting, travel, fashion, crafts, hobbies and more, Philleo said.
The section will also include general interest and food preparation columns from lifestyles editor Sadie Fowler, who was promoted to the position to lead the effort on creating and selecting content for this section.
The front page of the section will also feature a question-and-answer style "Sunday Conversation" that will be held with a member of the community, to be kicked off with Dawn Holley, executive director of United Way of Bedford County.
In addition to recipes, the "In the Kitchen" page will feature "Tips from the Coupon Queen," a popular column that helps extend the family budget.
Staff Writer Mary Reeves' "Mother Mayhem" column will become a staple of the "Generations" page, which is to be included in the Life & Leisure section and will focus on parenting, family and senior issues.
Also, all weddings, engagements and anniversaries will now be published in the Life & Leisure section.
The wedding page will also offer features focusing on bridal decisions and wedding planning.
Other additions
On Tuesday, the "Farm" page will be expanded to "Horse and Farm," and will now include equine news and features from Bedford County and beyond.
An "Answers" page will also be added on Tuesday, featuring a new Ask AP column that allows readers to ask the Associated Press questions about current news items.
The Wednesday edition will now include a "Technology" page in addition to the business page.
Thursday's edition will have a revamped "Home" section and an expanded "Entertainment" section.
Friday's paper will include "Your Money," which will feature a Consumer Reports column and other items helping readers to better invest, save and spend their money.
Obituaries will still be included in the printed editions on a daily basis.
On Mondays, any obituaries that come in will be posted on the paper's web site, www.t-g.com, and will also be included in the print edition Tuesday.
Breaking news stories, sports stories from Saturday and Sunday, and other items will also be posted to the web site on Mondays and included in Tuesday's print edition.
More specialty pages are in consideration, and may be added in the upcoming weeks, including a "Garden" page and a "Health & Fitness" page.
Give us your input
If you have ideas on how we can continue to improve the Times-Gazette's content, place a comment below or e-mail editor John Philleo at editor@t-g.com.
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please
Mr. Yates will be turning over in his grave!
I understand the price is being expanded also.. What percent will the increase be ????
What was wrong with Mon. thru Fri. seemed to sell a lot of papers for a lot of years.
If you have a police scanner you know what is happening around town then read it in the paper three or four days later.
Wow! An entertainment section? So who gets to cover the groups singing at the nursing home or the tone deft guitar player at the Bell Buckle Cafe?
I'd be willing to be a stringer for the bistros and convalescent facilities.
Some of the tones offered might be more deft than others but they are provided out of love rather than fame or profit.
The Bell Buckle Cafe,etc. might be picky but the nursing homes welcome just about anybody (school choir,barbershop quartet,gospel singers,piano players or what-have -you) that wish to entertain the shut-ins.
If anyone wants to volunteer their ska band or perform a little jazz,swing,retro rock,bluegrass ,Gilbert & Sullivan or Mozart,they can talk to the folks in charge.
Whether they play Enya,Elvis,Elgar,Eddie Money or Engelbert Humperdink,they'd be met with gratitude for giving of their time and talent.
(Even if the residents took the batteries out of their Belltones before attending the performances.)
For a town this size, I was always surprised they had newspaper service five days a week and then especially when they added the Sunday paper. Where I use to live they only offered the newspaper on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It sounds like a good idea to me and especially if they are going to beef up the Sunday paper anyway and the Monday edition usually didn't have a whole lot of stuff in it anyway.
Still though, some will whine and complain about this small issue because that is what they do in life in general. :-)
Lower Taxes Please,
That was a really good question. However,I think this expansion will be good for everybody. Living in Savannah, Georgia, I have to read T-G online. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but here, newspappers such as Savannah Morning News, Coastal Courier as well as others have had to make some layoffs recently. It's comforting to know that the folks at the homefront are heading in the other direction. I hope this works out.
Hey! I never said that singing in the nursing home was wrong. I just don't see where we have enough entertainment to warrent many stories. But then again, the T-G is not really full of local news. They mostly just cut and paist from the AP Wire. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how our "hometown" paper is less and less concerned with the "hometown". I almost stopped getting the TG because most of the stories were already run in the Tennessean that morning.
mark.geeting
I understand that the price of the paper was going to $.75 for week days and $1.00 for sundays. This was just a rummer, so that is why I ask the question. I thought the the t-g would say for sure what they were doing.
I think this is about the same price as the USA Today, but may even be wrong about that. Again, this is a question that maybe someone can answer for me.
If the price is the same, then I would have a choice of what I would like to spend my money on.
Well the Monday paper hasn't had any news in it in a long time. Now it looks like the TG is turning into a magazine instead of a newspaper. Have you listened to the Police Scanner in a while. We are living in a Crime infested Cesspool and the TG only prints the Scandal stories and so called human interst stuff. This town would be less of a rumor mill if you told people more about what was going on.
By the time we see it in the newspaper we have already heard all the rumors. Problem is some people prefer the rumors to the news stories and continue to spread rumors instead of truth.
I am going to borrow a BBC tshirt saying here:
What happens in Shelbyville...Beats you back home.
Good job T-G. These sound like welcome changes!
Maybe,we'll get more entertainment after we expand coverage.
The plays,concerts,"sangins'",dances,club programs,benefits,lecture series and such could be augmented by card tournaments,historical re-inactments and items on what's going on in neighboring communities.
Some of our own people might be involved in out-of-town activities.
There might be folks looking to take a group to Crossville,Manchester,Nashville,the 'Boro or the like and give people the chance to get bulk discount admission or season passes.
The online paper (especially on Monday) could be used to "test drive" niche segments like Education,Local Politics,Heritage (a glimpse into our past),features for children and seniors and profiles of the different subcultures within our community.
These "pilots" for possible categories could be reader-driven and become regular features if there's enough demand.
It would be really great if the ethnic and ideological groups could reveal something about themselves so we could learn what our neighbors are really about and could read the truth about this religion or that nationality or special interest instead of being ignorant or misinformed.
I guess it wasn't a rumor about the price of the paper going up, since it was on the news stand this morning. Looks like the t-g could have told us up front.