On Sunday, Pensacola News Journal Executive Editor Lisa Nellessen Savage notified Escambia and Santa Rosa readers that they would no longer find the Pensacola News Journal on their doorstep or driveway in the mornings. Effective March 4, the United States Postal Service would deliver a modified print version.
Savage tried to soften the blow by stressing, “Our print newspaper is incredibly important to us.”
- She said the move would give subscribers “a more consistent delivery,” and the new print edition would focus on “local news with more impact and context, feel-good community features, sports analysis, and commentary ? the stories you can’t get anywhere else.” Their website would be where readers would find breaking news “round-the-clock.”
Why this matters: Thriving communities have robust, informative daily newspapers. The News Journal has been pulling out of that role for years. First, the newspaper dropped its columnists and experienced editors who knew our community. Later, it reduced its editorial board to two people: Savage and cartoonist Andy Marlette. The experiment failed, and the paper let Marlette resign and dropped daily editorials, replacing them with local viewpoints and Sunday editorials written by the Palm Beach Post.
- At that time, Savage told readers that the newspaper wanted more local voices and that they shouldn’t care about what the newspaper thought about local issues. The News Journal would focus more on reporting.
Adding to the downfall of the print edition has been Gannett shutting down its printing presses in Northwest Florida, laying off dozens of workers. The News Journal quit printing here as it moved out of its offices on Romana Street. Presses in Mobile, Panama City and now Jackson, Miss. do the work.
Each time the printing moved, the deadline for reporters also changed to earlier in the day. In 2004, the reporters had to turn in their articles by 10 p.m. The time moved from 6 p.m. to 3 p.m. and noon with each shift to a different printing press, which led to the print edition becoming less and less timely.
Dig Deeper: Gannett wants to believe this is a good thing. The company tells us that it has already successfully introduced the approach in dozens of markets nationwide and is expanding the initiative.
- I scanned the online Sunday editions of Gannett’s other daily newspaper in Northwest Florida. Their newspapers in Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Tallahassee did not have any announcement their print editions were moving to mail service—another sign that Pensacola is no longer a shining star in Gannett’s chain of more than 200 newspapers.
