Kitsap News Group papers’ transition to a once-weekly publications across the board, opens the door for What’s Up in Bremerton and beyond.

It’s no secret that the state of newspapers as we know it is in flux. It has been for some time.

The 21st Century reader, the Internet and the latest economic recession (and various combinations thereof) have definitely taken their toll on the traditional print industry. But we haven’t really felt it all that much here in Kitsap, especially at Sound Publishing, until as of late.

Sound Publishing — the parent company of the Kitsap News Group, which What’s Up is a part of — is the largest publisher of community and suburban newspapers in Washington state. The company operates 30 community newspapers, two business journals and weekly advertising shoppers throughout the Northwest, and has been expanding over the past few years, even as other local papers and others throughout the nation were contracting operations and/or services.

Then came the nationwide economic catastrophe of 2008.

And along with it, earlier this month, came the announcement from Sound Publishing that it was decreasing most of its community papers (including all of the KNG) from twice-weekly publications down to once-weekly. Which doesn’t really change things all that much for What’s Up, because we’ve always been a once-weekly publication, hitting newsstands inside the ad stack of KNG papers on Wednesdays.

However, starting the first week of January 2009, all KNG papers — the North Kitsap Herald, the Bainbridge Review, the Port Orchard Independent, the Central Kitsap Reporter and the Bremerton Patriot — will publish on Fridays. As will What’s Up, in each of the five, which increases our circulation by about 70,000 as we’ll once again be distributed in the Central Kitsap Reporter and will be in the Bremerton Patriot for the first time, while continuing our presence in the Herald, Review and Independent.

The transition is a proactive step in the changing world of the publishing industry, which should provide editorial teams with the ability to do more in-depth features on community issues (coupled with updates and breaking news online), while also boding well for local advertisers looking to get the word out about their weekend events.

For What’s Up, the change to a Friday publication should provide our readers with even more up-to-date info on the weekend’s happenings in addition to opening the door for distribution into the greater Bremerton area (one of the county’s arts and entertainment epicenters) for the first time ever.

All the while, we’ll continue (and improve) providing our patented intensely local coverage on all the happenings in the arts and entertainment scene countywide and beyond, into the greater West Sound.

Despite all the seemingly impending doom, these are exciting times.