An internal working document obtained by The Laurel indicates the Torrington Register-Citizen, owned by Hearst CT Media, will begin publishing a print edition once per week beginning March 12.
The decision will be shared publicly with readers in Thursday’s editions.
Update: This message was posted online Wednesday.
Publisher Mike DeLuca informed Hearst staff the decision is driven by low subscriptions for the paper, which he put at “a few hundred,” and the opportunity to reinvest savings into additional content:
“Creating one robust edition each week coupled with the e-edition and digital access to all of our content will allow us to be more efficient and invest more dollars into deepening and furthering our content. There will also be no change in staffing as a result of this decision.”
DeLuca’s memo says the Register-Citizen is the only paper in the Hearst chain moving to one day a week publishing. “There is no immediate plan to reduce frequency in any of our other papers,” DeLuca said.
The timing seems helpful, but not too helpful to the new Winsted Citizen expected to publish a pilot edition next month.
While Hearst says there are no “immediate” plans to reduce publication at its other papers, when combined with the recent decision by the privately owned Meriden Record-Journal to begin publishing five days a week, we get a peek into the behind the scenes thinking of newspaper executives in the current marketplace.
