The West Central Tribune has announced it will publish its print edition only twice a week and move to mail delivery, effective July 8.
While current local economic conditions impacted by the latest coronavirus developments have forced our business to make these difficult decisions, it is important to remember our commitment to continue telling the stories of Willmar, west central Minnesota and the rest of the state.
The West Central Tribune's newsroom will continue publishing a news product daily digitally at wctrib.com and in our electronic edition, even when print days are reduced. Our news coverage will continue seven days a week, while our content delivery methods are evolving toward a digital future.
The continuing pandemic has accelerated the movement of readers away from print content and toward digital content. Our industry has been changing in recent years, but we believed our industry had more time to move toward the digital future more gradually.
The essence of our storytelling has never been about the paper on which it has been printed. Newsprint has never told our stories but was merely the historical delivery vehicle bringing our stories to your household for 125 years.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, the changing health and economic conditions of 2020 have now brought changes to the West Central Tribune’s print schedule and delivery. Our announcement is the result of the challenges facing newspapers across the country. Our company’s newspapers in Duluth, and Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, made similar announcements last month.
While our news company is changing its delivery methods, our storytelling team in the Tribune newsroom and Forum News Service remains in place reporting seven days a week, 365 days a year, on the stories of Willmar, west central Minnesota and the state.
Our reporters and photographers will continue recording the triumphs of people, teams and communities. We will share the sorrow and tragedies of families and towns across our region.
Starting July 8, we will continue delivering a print edition on Wednesdays and Saturdays to our member subscribers. Those print editions will be delivered via U.S. Postal Service. Single copy newspapers will be available at our normal locations early each Wednesday and Saturday morning.
The other days of the week, the West Central Tribune is asking our subscriber members to turn to our e-edition and our website, wctrib.com, via their mobile, tablet or desktop devices to read our news coverage.
Many of our readers — some who were skeptical about reading the e-edition of our newspaper on their tablet or phone — have come to enjoy the e-edition. Readers get their e-edition or website content early in the morning and they don’t have to wait for the carrier to deliver the paper or walk through snowdrifts to their mailbox to get the newspaper.
Our readers like the e-edition as they are able to zoom in to enlarge the text — which is beneficial for those with eyesight challenges. You click on a story continuing on another page and immediately jump to the right page; rather than thumbing through pages to find the right page. And readers like how easy it is to clip a story or puzzle from the e-edition and save it or print it out. And you do not need a pair of scissors.
We are also adding additional content to our website, wctrib.com. We are soon adding a digital section for daily comics and games. See wctrib.com/comics and wctrib.com/games .
ADVERTISEMENT
For our subscriber members, now is a great time to activate your Wctrib.com membership that comes with your West Central Tribune subscription. You can activate your membership either online at wctrib.com/activate or by calling us at 320-235-1154 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you are not a member subscriber yet, please visit wctrib.com/subscribe or give us a call. Our member services staff are eager to help people learn how to activate their membership and navigate our e-edition or website.
As editor of the West Central Tribune, I thank you each of you for your loyal readership and humbly ask for your continued support. Our newsroom will continue covering the news of Willmar and west central Minnesota.
Kelly Boldan is editor of the West Central Tribune.
The Trust Project
