'Daily Tribune' Trades Monday for Saturday Edition

Local newspaper readers are set to get traditional Sunday offerings a day earlier each week.

Bartow County's daily newspaper and legal organ, , announced this week it's adding a Saturday edition that will include high school sports coverage and the classifieds.

“For more than 65 years, The Daily Tribune News has proudly served as Bartow County’s only daily newspaper. For many of those years, the paper was delivered in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. Times changed, and we responded to our readers’ requests for fresher news by moving to a morning publication, being delivered in-home before 6:30 a.m. weekdays," Publisher Johnette Dawson said in a press release newspaper staff emailed to Cartersville Patch. "As the county grew and readers asked for more, a Sunday morning edition was added. Then came a free web version, Facebook presence and a full e-edition available via subscription.”

The Tribune's first Saturday issue is set to be delivered to subscribers and available at news racks on April 7.

Dawson said in the release it would discontinue Monday's print to provide a Saturday edition and maintain current subscription rates. Its final issue of the Monday edition is set for March 26.

The move comes as newspapers across the country face declines in circulation and ad revenue.

In The State of the News Media 2011, an Annual Report on American Journalism, Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found audiences are quickly turning to the Internet for news. Digital was the only media sector in 2010 to see audience growth, while TV, audio and print experienced drops.

The newspaper industry has seen a 20-year decline in paid circulation, but smaller publications tend to do better than the largest newspapers, both measured in terms of circulation. About half of print's continuing ad losses are a result of falling circulation, a dynamic Pew said is highly likely to continue. The other half is attributed to shrinking ad volume.

But most newspapers still operate in the black, though profit margins are typically less than a quarter of what they were in the 1990s. With its audience shifting from print to digital publications, the newspaper industry is one trying to reinvent itself with a sustainable business model for the future, according to Pew.

"Industry hopes are pinned to developing many revenue streams, mostly in digital but some in print as well—some big, some modest. Perhaps, collectively, they can sustain newspaper organizations and their core news operations," Pew's annual report says.

For the six months that ended in September, The Tribune's total average paid circulation for Monday through Friday editions was 5,833 and for the Sunday edition, it was 6,508, according a publisher's statement filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Bartow's in the 2010 Census.

“We appreciate everyone who has supported us over the last 66 years and look forward to serving you for years to come,” Dawson added.

Where do you get your local and national news? Which medium—print, online, TV or radio—do you use most often? Tell us in the comments.