Post-Star to end print daily

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

As of July 11, The Post-Star says it will publish a print paper only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The other days it will be strictly digital, said an article in Sunday’s paper headlined, “Your expanded Post-Star coming soon.”

“In addition,” said the long unsigned article, “your newspaper will transition from being delivered by a traditional newspaper delivery carrier to mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.”

The Post-Star said “every print edition will be an expanded edition, with more content, more sections and more pages.”

“Every print day,” it said, “you’ll experience a ‘Sunday’ reading experience that’s bursting with local news and opinions, investigative and watchdog journalism, personalities and print days — Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays — your E-Edition will include the most important news of the day — focused on national and international news and sports — and your comics, puzzles and advice columns, but it will be a condensed version of our traditional daily news report.”

The Post-Star is owned by Iowa-based Lee Enterprises. The cut to three-day-a-week printing apparently applies to most of the chain.

On April 27, the Daily Montanan, headlined: “Sources: Lee newspapers plans to reduce printing days.”

The story began, “Lee Enterprises, the corporate owner of five Montana daily newspapers, plans to reduce the number of days it prints in most of its newspapers to three days a week.”

The article in Sunday’s Post-Star said, “The new three-day print frequency certainly represents a shift in your newspaper experience. But fewer days of print doesn’t mean less of the important, impactful local coverage that you’ve come to expect from us. We’re still your best source for local news content, and we remain deeply committed to covering our community all day, every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

“Every print day you’ll experience a ‘Sunday’ reading experience that’s bursting with local news and opinions, investigative and watchdog journalism, personalities and profiles, sports stories that take you beyond the results of a game played a day or two ago…”

There was no indication whether The Post-Star subscription or store price will change. Print subscriptions are currently listed at $120 for six months. There was a pop-up “$1 for 6 Months” digital special on their site Tuesday. In parentheses it said “renews at $10.99/month.”

The article said, “At The Post-Star, we have grown our digital customers more than 17.5% over the past 12 months alone!” There was no indication how many customers that actually amounts to, or how many of them are subscribers at the $1 for 6 Months rate.

Thurston ends Foothills Biz Daily

Chronicle editor Mark Frost writes: The day after The Post-Star said it will cut back its print edition to three days a week, Steve Thurston announced the sudden halt of the digital news site he started two-and-a-half years ago. He wrote: “Today marks the final day of FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. I have taken another position, and I will announce that here and elsewhere in the next couple of days.” Contacted by The Chronicle, the Queensbury grad responded: “I can’t talk about my new position.”

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