Daily News to convert to five days per week

Beginning Monday, Sept. 17, The LaGrange (Ga.) Daily News will change print publication days to Tuesday through Saturday, no longer producing a Monday printed edition.

The change to Tuesday through Saturday print publication will help our community's top media organization align resources with its core mission: informing readers and guiding customers to its advertisers. The Daily News will continue 24/7 news coverage and publication at lagrangenews.com and its other digital and social media channels.

"The change will allow our staff to focus more precisely on producing a quality community print newspaper on the days' readers and advertisers have demonstrated matter to them most," said Daily News Publisher Baker Ellis. "It also allows our staff members to invest more time and energy into the development of our digital, media products, which continue to grow rapidly in use by our readers and advertisers."

The decision has been carefully considered and is driven by two primary factors.

First, rapid increases in newsprint costs, caused by recent and substantial tariffs, have led to a nearly 30 percent increase in materials costs, with no clear end to rising newsprint prices in sight. This has caused similar changes in publication cycles across the newspaper industry, Ellis said.

Second, the change helps The LaGrange Daily News best match its printed newspaper's frequency and content with changing reader habits. More readers are consuming news and information from the Daily News' website on computers and mobile devices.

The website is read by more than 80,000 different users monthly.

"Over the last decade particularly, many newspaper readers have migrated from print newspapers to newspaper websites as their primary source for local news," Ellis said. "The LaGrange Daily News is fortunate because we continue to have a healthy print newspaper audience, but we also recognize habits of some readers have changed, which is why we've also recently launched an e-edition of the Daily News. The move to reduce print frequency, launch an e-edition and focus on development of our digital media better positions us to continue to serve the people of Troup County with news and information in the form or on the device they wish to read it, for many years to come. Our products have more readers than ever."

The print newspaper will continue to be delivered to subscribers by the U.S. Postal Service and the subscription price of the printed newspaper will remain the same.