Two weeks ago, our editor and publisher, Nathan Alford, told you about a significant change to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News: a mid-May switch to publishing just two print editions each week.
Today, I’m writing to tell you about more changes we’re making to the newspaper.
(I know, I know, just what readers want: More change! But let me explain.)
When you pick up Tuesday’s Daily News, you’ll notice an updated look to it. We call this a “redesign,” which newspapers are accustomed to undergoing every decade or two in order to keep up with modern aesthetics. As redesigns go, I would judge this a minor one for the Daily News.
The most significant alteration is a change to the font we use for stories. For any typophiles out there, we are retiring our Century Schoolbook font in favor of Source Serif Pro. We hope you find it as readable as the type you’re poring over now — and it might even be more readable. We run the current font at a 9.5 point size, while the new font will be 10 point.
Other changes: The “Daily News” flag on 1A and the headers on other pages will be updated; Page 2A will have a new format; we will introduce different headline fonts; and our staff bylines for stories, photos and columns will be tweaked.
All in all, I hope you find the redesign pleasing at best and unnoticeable at worst. Don’t be shy about giving us feedback.
The more significant change comes May 16, when we switch to our twice-a-week print publication schedule. Our print days will be Thursdays and Saturdays. And subscribers will get their papers delivered by the post office rather than carriers contracted by us.
Alford summed up the factors that led to this change in his column: “Economics are the reason, plain and simple. The entire news industry — newspaper, radio and television — is being gutted by economic disruption, big box store closures, and unprecedented labor and raw material inflation.”
I’m one of those people whose idea of a perfect morning includes a sunny front porch, a piping-hot coffee and the crinkly pages of a newspaper stuffed with news, sports, arts and culture, and opinion offerings. So this change bums me out.
But I’m also a husband, father and full-time worker, so I can probably count on one hand the number of sunny front porch mornings the newspaper and I have enjoyed together in the last 10 years. Most mornings, I’m racing through the paper while also trying to get myself and my family out the door. It’s not as serene, but I still get what I need from the paper.
Here’s my point: We won’t be able to offer you the luxuriousness of a printed paper quite as often, but we will give you local stories that affect the lives of people on the Palouse seven days a week on our website, dnews.com. Our reduction in paper editions won’t alter how we cover the news.
If you have a print subscription, it comes with a username and password for our website. If you don’t have those credentials, call our office at (208) 746-8742 and we’ll get you set up. And if you aren’t a subscriber and want to become one, you can sign up here: bit.ly/4cWj0ZV.
Many of the Daily News features you are accustomed to will make their way to our website. And when we do send out the crinkly pages of the print edition twice a week, we plan on it packing a hardy wallop of local news.
We are still working out the details of the mid-May transition and will share those with you as the switch draws near.
Thanks for sticking with us despite the changes. Hopefully readers will even judge some of our adjustments to be improvements.
Baney is the city editor and interim managing editor of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Lewiston Tribune. He can be reached at mbaney@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.
