Southeast Iowa Union announces change to printing schedule

The Southeast Iowa Union will reduce the number of days published effective with the Tuesday, Jan. 2 edition. The shift will take the Union from a five-day-per-week paper Monday – Friday to a twice-weekly paper publishing on Tuesday and Thursday.

The shift in frequency is necessitated by economic pressures that have made it unsustainable to keep printing the paper five-days-per-week. Printing and postage costs continue to rise while subscription and advertising revenue has not kept pace.

“This was certainly not an easy decision, or one that we wanted to make at all,” said Matt Bryant, Publisher of the Southeast Iowa Union. “It became clear that hard decisions had to made so we can continue serving our communities, albeit with a reduced frequency, well into the future.”

The Tuesday publication will remain similar to what readers experience now with news, events, information and entertainment primarily from Jefferson, Henry and Washington Counties under the Southeast Iowa Union banner. The Thursday publications will amplify the coverage of the local markets by being more catered to individual communities and counties in the Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant or Washington zoned editions.

“Despite fewer papers per week, our intention is to deliver even more news that is relevant to readers and less news from outside the area. By beefing up local coverage and eliminating much of the outside news, we are confident that our readers will still find tremendous value in their hometown newspaper,” said Bryant.

In August of 2019, the Fairfield Ledger, Mt. Pleasant News and Washington Evening Journal merged to form the Southeast Iowa Union. The merger created a path for the papers to continue publishing daily for four more years at a time when other publications were contracting or closing.

While the printed paper will reduce frequency, the newspapers website will not. All Union subscribers also get unlimited access to stories posted on southeastiowaunion.com. Stories, sports scores and obituaries will all be posted to the website as they are written or received, giving readers a first look at content before it is printed, in many cases still on a daily basis.

“Many of our readers have had a relationship with their hometown paper for years, maybe even generations. The staff and I also have a deep connection to the paper. So, I understand that there is an emotional element to this. I feel it, too. Taking that out of the equation, we know that by making these moves now, and delivering a great newspaper that we can all be proud of, your hometown newspaper can continue serving our corner of the state for many more years,” concluded Bryant.

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