Sharon Herald Cuts Print Publication to 5 Days

SHARON, Pa. – The Sharon Herald announced this morning that it will discontinue publication of its print editions on Tuesday and Sundays. The change takes effect April 28.

“The sudden loss of advertising revenue due to the virus crisis has added to what already had been economic challenges throughout the newspaper industry, causing us to restructure our resources so we can continue to serve you well into the future,” said Sharon Sorg, publisher, in a letter to readers.

Even before the COVID-19 business shutdown, “Readership changes, newsprint and ink prices, print production expenses and delivery cost have resulted in newspapers around the country publishing newspapers fewer days of the week to remain economically healthy in the future,” Sorg noted in her letter to readers.

“The virus crisis has had a particularly difficult impact on The Herald because the majority of our revenue comes from advertising by local businesses, which are also suffering from having to close their doors. Yet we have been making our vital COVID-19 coverage available to everyone in the region on our website during the coronavirus health emergency. The result is record digital traffic that has inspired our staff,” Sorg said.

“Discontinuing two print days will allow us to focus our resources on printing more local news on the other five days. The Saturday paper, for example, will become a weekend edition,” she continued. “It will include advertisements, news enterprise projects, expanded sports reports and other content now contained in the Sunday paper. You will still have access to all our news, features, sports, comics, puzzles, advertisements and other print content Tuesday – as well as the other weekdays – on our replica electronic version of the newspaper. It is accessible through our website (SharonHerald.com) by clicking on the E-Paper listing to the right of the menu item below the paper’s name.”

Sorg noted that the The Herald “has been the Mercer County and Shenango Valley region’s primary news source for more than a century. …The current coronavirus coverage has underscored the importance of that responsibility.”

Publication and delivery to subscribers and newsstands will continue on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Sharon Herald is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. of Montgomery, Ala.  The Herald’s sister newspaper locally is the twice-a-week Allied News in Grove City, Pa., according to the newspaper’s “about us” section on SharonHerald.com.

CNHI operates more than 80 daily newspapers. Other company newspapers in this area include: New Castle News, the Ashtabula Star-Beacon, The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.) and the Meadville Tribune.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.