Sun to publish Tuesdays and Fridays

The Portland Daily Sun next week will change from publishing four days a week to Tuesdays and Fridays.
Sun publisher Mark Guerringue said the change will allow the Sun to better concentrate its resources in a very difficult newspaper and media environment.
“It’s no secret that business is tough for all media, not just newspapers,” said Guerringue, “and as we rely more and more on our digital footprint, publishing in print four days a week was making less and less sense.”
Late last year, the Sun acquired Maine NewsSimply, a popular state-wide news web site, and introduced a new e-reader that delivers the paper via email to registrants. The Sun was founded in 2009.
Guerringue said as a free newspaper, unlike Maine’s big paid dailies which have seen their print readership drop in half, the Sun’s distribution remains steady at 13,000.
“We’ve got plenty of readers,” said Guerringue, “it’s the advertising that’s not keeping up.”
The Sun’s editor, David Carkhuff, said he thinks readers will respond positively. “Obviously, in a perfect world, we would have preferred to stay with a four-day publishing schedule,” he said, “but the reality is that’s not possible.”
Carkhuff, however, is not worried about losing readers.
“We’ve got very loyal readers, who look to us for stories and columns they can’t get anyplace else,” he said. “Now, we’re basically putting four days of editorial into two and with more time between deadlines, we can do more in-depth enterprise stories.”
The Sun will immediately expand its distribution south to Saco. Guerringue said printing fewer editions allows expansion, and the Sun’s geographic reach will grow over time.
Asked about the general state of publishing and newspapers, Guerringue said these are unprecedented times.
“Revenue at newspapers as an industry is where it was in 1950, local TV ratings are way down as are the number of cable subscribers, and in a few years radios won’t be standard equipment in most cars,” said Guerringue. “We’ve all heard of the term ‘creative destruction,’ well, that term pretty much defines media today.”
As for the Sun, Guerringue sees a bright, although challenging future. “As a free paper that covers local news, I often say we were ‘born Internet ready.’” he said. “But to stay ready, we’ve got to evolve and that’s what we’re doing.”