Constantly rising newsprint costs lead to narrower Journal

It was inevitable. Sooner or later the printing plant in Cheney was going to follow the rest of the industry and move to a narrower roll of newsprint.

If you are a subscriber to a daily newspaper, such as the Spokesman-Review or the Tri-City Herald, then you have already experienced a major cosmetic change.

This week, your community newspaper is following suit. As a result, we have used the opportunity to freshen up some of the paper’s design elements while making adjustments to the new dimensions.

This week’s edition includes the use of new headline fonts, changes to the design of specific page headers and expansion of weather and market information on the front page.

Newspapers across the state and the nation have physically downsized the overall width of their newspapers, in an effort to save money as the world’s paper mills, where newsprint is made, continue to push the price of paper through the roof.

Most newspapers transitioned to these narrower formats two years ago. The rest of us were reluctant to do so, and held tight to our individual newspaper’s traditional width.

The clock finally ran out a few months ago. The printing plant converted to the narrower newspaper width in October, taking the Cheney Free Press to the 22-inch wide format with its first edition that month. They graciously allowed us to finish the year using the size we were accustomed to.

While the width of a new page has narrowed from 13 inches to 10 inches, our committment to fully covering our communities has not wavered.

We will continue to attend and report on community events, local government, schools and sports as best we can with the resources at hand.

In the past year we have also dramatically inclreased our website and our presence on Facebook.

These days, sports scores, are posted almost immediately to our Facebook page.

That’s possible with the help of modern technology and some willing volunteers who send us text message updates at the end of each quarter and half.

Since the start of football season, and now during basketball, we are posting photo galleries from the games on the same night on our Facebook page.

The Journal’s weekly newspaper may be physically narrower, but our news coverage hasn’t diminished. In fact, with our website and Facebook presence, we are now delivering news seven days a week.

The new width will take some getting used to — for all of us. But The Journal’s staff appreciates your continued support and readership.