Anchorage Daily News shrinks to just 2 sections Monday through Thursday

KTUU, a television station in Anchorage, posted a story about cutbacks at the Anchorage Daily News.

The Daily News is preparing for more cutbacks, shrinking to just two sections Monday through Thursday. Subscription rates are climbing by about $1 a month.

But Dougherty said the price for their paper is still a good deal.

"I mean, think about what you get for $0.50. I don't know if you can buy a pack of gum for $0.50," he said.

The one thing going for the Anchorage Daily News is its Web site.

Dougherty said it's the second most-visited Web site in the state behind Craigslist, hitting 12 to 13 million page views a month.

But as the paper shrinks, the Web content grows.

Dougherty's own words describe the inefficiency of the newspaper's old business model.

"Think how silly it is to move information around by printing it on a piece of paper and giving it to a guy in a pick-up truck to drive it to your house," Dougherty said. "I mean how inefficient that is, but it makes sense if it's the best available way to do it. But now when you can do it with electronics almost instantaneously, I think that's the kind of efficiency that we would be driven toward."

Dougherty said even as the Daily News confronts a difficult 2009, the core mission of delivering Alaska news won't change.

But the paper on your doorstep will.

On Friday and Saturday there will be four sections, and seven on Sunday. I covered the ADN's December story on it's own cutbacks in this post: Editor of Anchorage Daily News: "We're shrinking!"

Hat tip: emailer

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