Sunday T-G to be expanded

T-G publisher Hugh Jones [Click to enlarge]

The Times-Gazette will be offering its readers a variety of additional content beginning this Sunday as it unveils it's new Life & Leisure section, to be followed throughout next week with a parade of new content.

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.