Gannett-owned Lebanon Daily News will move to mail delivery later this month.
The changed was announced through an unbylined article in the paper’s Wednesday, Sept. 27, edition.
“We are committed to continuing the LDN’s long tradition of informing the community with engaging news and sports stories,” said Scott Fisher, the York-based editor of the paper, via the press release. “Moving to U.S. Postal Service will assure reliable delivery to our readers.”
The move marks the final days of the six-day-a-week Daily News as a morning paper, and will necessarily increase the duration between when the paper is printed and delivered.
Gannett said that the transition for the Lebanon Daily News will occur on Oct. 30. The announcement was made as Gannett shared similar transition plans at several other papers across the country, including titles in Michigan, Ohio, and Texas.
The paper had previously dropped its Saturday edition in March 2022; now, its Sunday edition is expected to morph into a weekend edition similar to Gannett’s national flagship paper, USA Today.
Mail delivery has been traditionally more common for weekly and monthly periodicals, which have longer editorial cycles. Periodical mail – subsidized by the federal government – can offer increased reliability and lower costs compared to carrier home delivery.
According to the Local News Initiative, a research effort out of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, switching to mail delivery is one of the few options available to legacy print publishers – especially the conglomerated corporate dailies – which face ongoing secular decline and increasing cost pressure.
“If consumers who are used to getting a paper in the morning now are going to pluck it out of the mailbox in the afternoon, they’re going to expect it to have a different value to their lives,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. “What’s breaking news at press time may be old news by the time it hits the mailbox.”
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