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The Bay Area News Group announced Tuesday that it is combining its daily newspapers in the East Bay, Silicon Valley and on the Peninsula into two distinct publications — the East Bay Times and The Mercury News.
The new East Bay Times will incorporate daily coverage from the current San Ramon Valley Times, Tri-Valley Times, Contra Costa Times, East County Times, West County Times, The Oakland Tribune, The Daily Review and The Argus.
The name San Jose is being dropped from the Mercury News.
The changes, which take effect April 5, will give readers on both sides of the Bay more focused regional news that impacts their daily lives, according to Sharon Ryan, the news group’s president and publisher, who said the two daily newspapers will continue to include community news.
The Argus in Fremont, The Daily Review in Hayward and the Oakland Tribune will change over to community weeklies, adding to the group’s current collection of 27 weeklies in the South Bay and East Bay. As part of the move, the news organization will create an East Bay-wide website, eastbaytimes.com, replacing the current contracostatimes.com and insidebayarea.com.
Ryan said the moves are being undertaken in the wake of an extensive survey of print readers last fall.
“Readers have been quite clear with us about how much they like their newspapers and what they want more of, and we’re changing to serve them better,” Ryan said.
She said the changes are part of an ongoing transformation to make BANG more responsive to its print and digital audiences, streamlining production while improving news gathering and presentation to provide readers with news when they want it and where they want it.
It was also announced that the changes will result in “a modest reduction” in staffing in certain areas, some of it through buyouts in the newsroom and expansion in others.
Looks to me like more cost-cutting, which will translate into less content.
I understand that there are challenges in keeping newspapers profitable in the digital era. But, it seems that newspapers are increasingly falling short of fulfilling their role in keeping the public well-informed.
How much more can they cut? The main section is 8 or 9 pages. Local news is another 5 or 6 pages. All those pages are mostly advertisements.
Their business section is a joke, like maybe 2 or 3 pages.
Their sports pages are fine. So are the comics and weather pages.
I’ve subscribed for decades. I pay $33.60 per month.
I’ve thought about cancelling, but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it. I guess I’m too lazy.
An intrepid young reporter thought I was kidding when I told him that the very best thing about the CCTimes was that the plastic sleeves make excellent dog poop bags.
I wasn’t.
If they make the new combined editions “fuller”, with more content than in the more localized versions, that might make it worth doing. But certainly the main reason is cost-cutting, and this will mean less local news, probably zero coverage of local HS sports, etc.
I really like getting a daily newspaper, but with ever-less content, and rapidly rising subscription costs, it’s getting close to “cut the cord” time…