Newspaper Woes Hitting Home

The New Hampshire Union Leader will confront the economic recession and the general decline of the newspaper industry by combining its Friday and Saturday Editions into a single edition in some areas, according to publisher Joe McQuaid in an upbeat Publisher’s Note this morning.

“[F]or areas outside Greater Manchester, we will discontinue Saturday distribution and begin publishing a combined Friday/Saturday Edition. It will contain all of Friday’s features plus key sections and features from Saturday’s current paper. It will be delivered to state-area subscribers on Friday and be available at retail outlets on Friday and Saturday,” McQuaid writes.

The newspaper industry is in rough shape nationally. The holding company of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune has filed for bankruptcy protection. McClatchy is trying to sell off prime titles to pay down debt and stay afloat. The parent company of the vaunted New York Times has borrowed hundreds of millions against its real estate holdings and sold off pricey assets to manage the paper’s debts.

McQuaid offered an optimistic assessment of the Union Leader’s role in the community and the future of its business model.

“But here are a couple of important points to keep in mind about the Union Leader, Sunday News and UnionLeader.com,” he writes. “We are selling a lot of newspapers; our Web site numbers are strong and growing; and our advertisers know that we work.”

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the New Hampshire Union Leader’s average daily circulation has fallen from 61,548 in 2003 to 51,268, on September 30th, 2008.

Nevertheless, McQuaid writes, “to take a line from one-time newspaper reporter Samuel Clemens, reports of our death are greatly exaggerated.”