Beginning the first week in January, the North Kitsap Herald will become a tabloid weekly newspaper.
The Herald, along with two twice-weekly sister publications in Kitsap County — the Port Orchard Independent and the Bainbridge Island Review — will be published weekly on Fridays.
The Central Kitsap Reporter, Bremerton Patriot and Northwest Navigator will also publish on Fridays. With the new Friday publishing schedules, the What’s Up entertainment section, published by the Herald, will expand its coverage to 70,000 homes countywide.
“The Herald’s new look and new publication schedule will provide the editorial department with a new venue to do more in-depth features on issues confronting the North End,” said Donna Etchey, publisher of the Herald and What’s up. “And, because the Herald will be delivered on Fridays, we will be able to give our readers information about upcoming weekend events. This bodes well for our advertisers, many of whom are Mom-and-Pop establishments who rely on the Herald to get their message to the community.”
As the newspaper industry has seen change nationwide, for Sound Publishing the change in format and distribution is a proactive, rather than reactive, move.
“While many newspapers are concerned about declining readership due to the Internet age, our newspapers in Kitsap County are taking the opposite approach — purposefully reducing their frequency of distribution to focus more resources to publishing an online edition containing breaking news content and regular community features,” said Lori Maxim, Vice President of West Sound Newspaper Operations for Sound Publishing, the parent company of the Kitsap News Group, which the newspapers make up. “Our newspapers will continue to provide high quality, local editorial content to readers and targeted advertising packages to local and national advertisers. Our goal is to be the preeminent provider of local content and advertising in Kitsap County.”
In addition, Sound Publishing also will suspend operations at the company’s Bainbridge Island printing facility. The company will temporarily close the plant at the end of business on Jan. 2, 2009. The closure will affect 44 full- and part-time staff at the press center. The plant has been in operation for more than 20 years.
As a result of the closure of the company’s printing facility on Bainbridge Island, all Sound Publishing newspapers will be printed at the Everett press facility beginning the week of Jan. 5, 2009.
“There’s no question that the economy is taking its toll on every business. Coupled with that, the publishing industry is going through a major transformation, which will lead to a reduction in printed products and an increase in our on-line offerings. Sound Publishing is a strong and viable company and we need to ensure that we take steps to build on that strength,” Tempelmayr said. “Our hope is that we will be able to resume operations at Bainbridge when the economy improves. We will be keeping the plant and equipment intact but do not know when we might be able to start up again,” Tempelmayr said.
Sound Publishing Inc. is the largest publisher of community and suburban newspapers in Washington and is also one of the area’s largest commercial web printers. The company operates 30 community and suburban newspapers, including the Kingston Community News, two monthly business journals, and 17 Little Nickel and Nickel Ads weekly shoppers throughout Washington and Oregon. Sound Publishing also operates a web printing facility in Everett and publishes two editions of the Northwest Navigator for the U.S. Navy.
