al.com
Like their sibling in New Orleans, the three Advance Publications newspapers in Alabama — in Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville — will cut back printing to three days a week. A piece by “al.com staff” breaks the news:
A new digitally focused media company — the Alabama Media Group, which will include The Birmingham News, the Press-Register of Mobile, The Huntsville Times and al.com — will launch this fall to serve readers and advertisers across the state, according to Cindy Martin, who will become president of the new organization.
The Alabama Media Group will “dramatically expand its news-gathering efforts around the clock, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week,” the report says. Eight paragraphs down, there’s a little more news:
The change in organizational structures across all departments will lead to a reduction in the overall size of the workforce. Details are still being worked out, Martin said.
Average circulation at the three papers between March 2011 and March 2012 has followed national trends, increasing or basically holding steady on Sundays and decreasing Monday through Friday. According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, The Birmingham News’ average Sunday circulation increased from 153,023 to 173,187, a 13 percent increase mostly attributable to the inclusion of “YES! Your Essential Shopper,” a home-delivered collection of flyers. Its average daily circulation declined 7.5 percent, from 112,209 to 103,729. The Press-Register’s Sunday circulation was basically flat, going from 103,300 to 103,373 and its daily circ dropped from 87,518 to 82,088; both figures rolled in distribution of The (Pascagoula) Mississippi Press. Average Sunday circulation rose 1 percent at The Huntsville Times, to 68,092 from 67,286, and daily fell 5.5 percent, from 47,366 to 44,725.
Related: Sen. Landrieu on Times-Picayune: ‘To think of not having a daily print edition saddens me.’
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