Two unions that represent newspaper workers are criticizing plans by a Davenport-based newspaper publisher to trim the number of days many of its newspapers are printed.
Lee Enterprises has announced that it’s cutting the number of days it prints a newspaper to three and switching home delivery from paper carriers to the U.S. Postal Service in many of its markets across the country.
Lee Enterprises owns 77 daily newspapers in the U.S., including the Quad-City Times, The Dispatch-Argus and the Muscatine Journal. Those publications have not announced any plans publicly to reduce the number of days they publish.
Similarly worded announcements in many Lee newspapers promised readers a “Sunday reading experience” during each print day edition. The new three-day print schedule started in June in some newspapers, such as the McDowell News of Marion, N.C.
Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, editor of that newspaper, announced: “I’m writing to let you know that starting June 6, the print edition of The McDowell News will move to a different publication schedule, with delivery three days each week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In addition, your newspaper will transition from being delivered by a traditional newspaper delivery carrier to mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.”
This is a statement on the changes in several of the newspapers going to three print days a week: “When you pick up your newspaper, you’re going to literally feel a difference. That’s because every print edition will be an expanded edition, with more content, more sections and more pages.”
But the Unions of Lee Enterprises and the United Media Guild say Lee’s plans to cut print production in many newspapers will hurt the company and its readers.
“The three-day-a-week model has not been clearly laid out to newsroom employees who are expected to implement it,” the unions jointly stated in a recent news release. “Neither has it been accurately communicated with readers and subscribers. Lee marketing claims that readers will be offered ‘expanded coverage’ under the new model are fundamentally dishonest. The entire process feels ill-conceived and rushed.”
The news release adds: “On the digital news delivery side, Lee has touted its growth in digital-only subscribers, but how many of those are readers who gave up on receiving a print edition as the company hikes prices and makes cuts to the product? That switch isn’t a net gain.”
The Unions of Lee Enterprises represents all unionized NewsGuild members at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; The Buffalo News; the Omaha World-Herald; the Richmond Times-Dispatch; the Roanoke Times; the Billings Gazette; the Casper Star-Tribune; the Sioux City Journal; the Charlottesville Daily Progress; the Kenosha News; The Daily News in Longview, Wash.; and the Southern Illinoisan. The United Media Guild represents workers at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Southern Illinoisan.
A recent report claims Lee will eventually cut the print production to three days a week at all of its daily papers, except its 20 largest papers.
A report at Reddit.com shows a list of 37 Lee newspapers that the website claims have already gone (or are about to go) to the three-day-a-week schedule. That list includes Iowa papers such as the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, the Sioux City Journal and the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpariel. But it does not include the Quad-City Times, The Dispatch-Argus and the Muscatine Journal.
