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SLO Tribune eliminating Saturday print publication

July 31, 2019

The SLO Tribune is slashing one day a week of print publishing after parent company McClatchy reported a net loss of $42 million in the first quarter of 2019. [Cal Coast Times]

Starting in November, the 80-year-old newspaper will no longer print a Saturday paper, the publisher announced on Tuesday. The decision follows the downsizing of the newspaper’s operation, the Tribune moved to a smaller office earlier this year.

Readership at the Tribune had been declining for more than a decade. In a recent Tribune report to the Alliance for Audited Media, for the first quarter of 2019, the editor noted a total daily circulation of 16,267, which included 11,123 printed papers and 5,144 digital subscribers.

Tribune Publisher Tim Ritchey spun the reduction in publication as a way to serve their reader’s changing habits.

“As reader’s habits change, we are adapting to serve them in new ways,” Ritchey wrote. “We are making this strategic change to invest in out future.”

Slashing production, as anticipated, resulted in a dive in McClatchy stock prices. Shares were off more than 9 percent for the day, closing at $2.21 a share.


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The only “reader truth” they should be “adjusting” to is investigating, reporting, and printing the truth. But of course not, why would they? Better to cut costs by only printing 6 days of lies.


14

“Well, moving to the Left politically didn’t work, who’s got a better idea?”, “Hey, I know, let’s move further to the Left!”, “Brilliant!, do it!”


23

shelworth: Are you talking about the democratic candidates? LOL.


5

One less day to read stale, slanted ‘news’.


20

The Tribune no longer controls information and realtors and car dealers are no longer its cash slaves. I was a Telegram-Tribune paper boy folding papers in the 70’s at the Johnson Avenue location as the cops pulled a dead body out of San Luis Creek. The reporters working full-time to defeat Diablo Canyon were watching from the fire escape above. The incident never made the paper.


21

I’ve said it before. Close their “new” office on Tank Farm Road, Collect up the computer equipment for resale. Fire Joe Tarica as a salary savings and give Matt Fountain a library card. He can file his “award winning” stories on the public computers for editorial review in Fresno. Then put out an online news page with advertisements from Ching Chong nail parlor and Jiffy Lube.

It’s the only way to make this rag profitable.


16

S-l-o-w-l-y; but surely, we are witnessing the final episode of this saga. The ‘Fibune’ died a long time ago (I stopped subscribing in early 2017). If it was not for the ‘bull-dog’ attitude of those in charge, there would be no print version today. It is a shame that there are still those who believe (or want to believe) that this ‘rag’ is still the best vehicle for news on the Central Coast. Don’t you just wish you had a pair of those ‘rose-colored’ glasses that they are still wearing?


30

Third job was as a bicycle news carrier. Half a century ago, geez.


The Trib decline is sad but unavoidable since it’s such a stuffy liberal rag, zero investigative content, house organ for the Adam Hill fan club…….we held on to our subscription for as long as we could stand it, but threw in the towel two years ago.


More surprising is that the paper doesn’t flourish or do moderately well in this somewhat liberal Heidi Harmon Haven of SLO County; there should be plenty of subscribers enjoying it’s content, I would have thought.


31

Not for what they charge and not for what they filter. I swear they must get approval from Adam Hill, Heidi Harmon and their corporate bosses before they dare publish anything other than an article about a flower show.


28

“They’re hippies! They don’t HAVE any money! “


— Eric Cartman


7

Good.


Now just close the whole damn thing down and get it over with.


SLO County deserves a real newspaper.


44

Shut it down. But don’t expect or wish for a new newspaper–the industry is already disrupted.


For local news, use Google and select “Local” in the left column. It aggregates all the various news stories from here.


As for the paywall at the Trib’s website, when you see an article on their site you want to read, in Chrome right-click the hyperlink and say to open in a private window; in Safari right-click while holding down the Option key and say to open in a private window. This is on a Mac, but would be similar on a PC. I don’t know about on IOS or Android.


Once you get into the web page, you’ll discover there was really nothing to read there anyway. LOL.


6

I don’t think anyone would notice the difference if they also cut out M-F. Well…except for those that want a couple stories a day of three-day old national news. LOL


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