Posted on 01/24/2006 10:05:40 AM PST by LdSentinal
NEW YORK The Buffalo News is getting rid of its afternoon edition to focus solely on its morning editions, Publisher Stanford Lipsey said today.
The changes are scheduled to take effect May 1 in Niagara County and Spring 2007 in Erie County.
This change is likely to have the biggest effect on Buffalo News delivery staff, but Lipsey said none of the independent contractors said they would drop their route after hearing the news.
The earlier delivery time will undoubtedly make it more difficult for those independent contractors to employ youth delivery staff, as a New York law prohibits minors from beginning work before 5 a.m. But Lipsey said the number of minors delivering papers had already been dwindling, from 4,400 to 1,300 in the past five years, because "kids are just too busy."
Lipsey also said he is sure the paper will have to cut some truck runs, but it is working on this extended schedule to be sure these and other changes are "done right."
Readers have expressed a growing preference for morning editions, according to Lipsey, who also pointed out that most morning editions were sold on the newsstands. "A lot of people are too tired or too busy when they get home from work," Lipsey said. And considering the News is one of the last top-50 papers to go all-morning, they just thought it was time.
While advertisers have not been specifically asking for a switch to morning delivery, Lipsey said many were happy that the paper's Friday entertainment tabloid would now be distributed in the morning, when their ads would have more impact. Ad rates will not be changing with the switch to mornings.
The paper has been studying the possibility of a switch for well over a decade, Lipsey said, and has talked recently with papers that had made the same switch. The Detroit News was especially helpful, having made its first morning-only delivery Jan. 9, while most papers had made the switch so long ago they had trouble remembering how it had gone. What the Buffalo News heard over and over again from these papers was that they didn't think they could build circulation on evening editions -- morning was clearly the way to go.
"No one we talked to were sorry they went morning," Lipsey said.
Too bad. I grew up in Buffalo and our family always got the afternoon Buffalo News (Buffalo Evening News back then).
No doubt. I'm surprised any remain. Printing old news once a day should be enough for anyone.
Less crap from 'Pravda on the Lake'. The sooner that socialist bird cage liner goes under, the better.
Too bad?
What do you miss reading a name mispelled 2 different ways in the Obits?
(that was the day I swore to never read that rag again - not only was it disrespectful, it was downright retarded and provded they had no fact or spell checkers)
Me too. Back then it was the "conservative" paper and the Courier Express was the liberal morning rag.
When I'm visiting there I do read the paper and I'll agree that the quality has gone down from when I was a kid.
"Liberal" and "conservative" weren't big concerns of mine as a youngster or a teen. One thing I miss is that whole section of comics they had on Saturday. If you remember that you're telling your age for sure..
My oldest brother was a carrier for the BEN. My younger brother and I loved riding in that big blue wagon.
(BTW, me too.)
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