By Staff
Begins printing in Greenville
By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
The No. 9 story of 2008 is the Washington Daily News dropping its Monday editions and having the newspaper printed at the North Carolina Cox/Daily Reflector facilities in Greenville.
The changes were in response to the recession and specific challenges faced by the newspaper industry.
The Washington Daily News became the 10th newspaper in North Carolina to switch from publishing seven days a week to publishing Tuesday through Sunday mornings.
Why eliminate the Monday editions?
Some subscribers decried the loss of the Monday editions. Other subscribers indicated they understood the reasoning behind the changes. Another group of subscribers complained about their newspapers being delivered later in the morning.
To compensate for the loss of its Monday editions, the newspaper is providing live updates on its Web site, www.wdnweb.com. The updates include obituaries, Monday television listings and a new Monday listing of comics, not to mention national sports stories recognizing area residents’ interest in NASCAR races, NFL games and ACC basketball games on Sundays.
The newer, more-efficient press and production equipment in Greenville allows the Washington Daily News to be printed in a more cost-efficient manner while improving overall print quality.
The changes resulted in some Washington Daily News employees being laid off.
The Washington Daily News was not always a seven-day-a-week newspaper before it ended publication of its Monday editions.
For 82 years, the newspaper was published six days a week, with Sunday excluded.
In the early 1990s, the newspaper went through several changes. First, it switched from an afternoon paper that published Mondays through Saturdays to an afternoon newspaper published Mondays through Fridays, but with morning newspapers published on Saturdays. That was done, in part, to get the results of area high-school football games (usually played on Friday nights) out to the public by Saturday mornings.
Later, the Washington Daily News added a Sunday edition and went completely to being a morning publication.