Regular readers of the Clay Insider will notice that this month’s edition is printed on a new page size. We have moved away from the 14-inch page that people have come to know, and instead adopted the more traditional 17-inch size, or “long tab” as those in the newspaper industry would say.
The reasons for this change are two-fold.
First, we are trying to make our newspaper a place where Clay businesses and restaurants can place inserts more conveniently. The long tab allows us to insert a 8.5”-by-11” piece without folding it, eliminating additional cost and time for our customers. More importantly, though, the change allows us to conform to the requests of our new printer, who has asked that we streamline the process with the other Eagle publications, which are all printed on a 17-inch page.
By outsourcing our printing, we now have a vastly improved printed product as well as the ability to print more color, something we know both our readers and our advertisers will enjoy.
Lately there have been a lot of newspapers that have made their own headlines. Some are streamlining their staffs and budgets and others are completely changing venues – from the printing press and real ink to the Internet and HTML. In the first half of 2009, small town papers and big city dailies across the country have shut their doors, from the Tucson Citizen to the Baltimore Examiner to the Kansas City Kansan. Others, like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor, are trying to make it with a web-only product.
But unlike newspapers that are shutting down or going strictly online, we believe the changes we have made at the Clay Insider will not only make our newspaper more attractive, but will provide additional opportunity for our advertisers. It’s a change worth making when all sides win.
In the next few months there will be another change facing the Insider: a new editor. August’s issue will be my last at the helm and I will be sad to leave. Rest assured, my departure has nothing to do with the state of affairs in the world of newsprint; it has only to do with my husband’s career in the military. When we have hired a replacement you readers will be the first to know and until then I hope to continue to hear from you at news@clayinsider.com.
