A letter to our readers, from the publisher:
It is my unhappy duty to report to you that this week’s edition of The Citizen will be the last weekly print newspaper we will be producing and delivering.
We will continue covering and reporting on local news and events online with TheCitizen.com and with a free newsletter that will be launching soon. More details coming on those ventures.
Why stop the newspaper, you ask? The print edition was for the most part a free publication — no subscription required. It was supported almost entirely by the advertisements paid for by mostly local merchants and service providers. Every week, 25,000 copies landed in driveways and in newsboxes throughout Fayette County. That now has ended.
The entire newspaper industry is in deepening trouble. Advertisers have switched to Google, Facebook, direct mail and other methods of reaching potential customers.
Plainly put, not enough advertisers were buying what we were selling. Overhead, printing and distribution costs are very high to produce a newspaper every week. It was beginning to cost more to print and distribute a print newspaper than the ads were bringing in. It switched from a profitable business model to a break-even struggle to a losing process over the past decade.
You can cut costs only so far, before you don’t have enough people left to produce a viable product.
I thank you for your business and your readership over a 26-year span. I hope you will continue reading our online, everyday edition and continue patronizing the advertisers who have chosen to support the online version of The Citizen.
It has been my privilege to serve this community for a quarter century. I hope you will visit with me and our staff online as we continue on TheCitizen.com what we began in The Citizen.
Cal Beverly
Editor and publisher
Your service to this community has been enormous and deeply appreciated! This is a sad day,a change for the worse. I’m very thankful you will continue online.
I do wish you had solicited donations and continued as a non profit. Your value to this community I feel certain would have generated a substantial response.
Blessings going forward!
I have written 1,179 columns for the citizen since December 1996. It has been a joy. I am so glad that the online version will continue although I usually took pleasure in reading the print edition cover to cover. I will continue to write and submit columns and hope the readers will continue to read and respond.
David Epps
Sad to see this happen, but it was inevitable. You could see that the page counts were dwindling over the past few months. I hope that you’re able to keep things going and keep your staff employed.
Stay relevant, Citizen.
What about letters to the editor?
They will be fine. STF, me, spyglass and others that pass the test for minimum intelligence – about 80 on the IQ scale. Sorry we won’t be hearing from you. You were really funny.
Letters to the editor will continue to be published online. The difference will be that the letters no longer will be subject to print deadlines. When we get our new online schedules organized, letters will go online soon after being received via email.
Cal – I’m sorry to see the print version disappear, but I am pleased that you will continue the electronic one. It’s good to have a source for local news and discussion.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Hate to hear this! Good luck with your new adventure! Thanks for your past service!
Sad to see this go away. Best of luck moving forward.
Well, unlike the previous poster, I did read the paper to see what was happening in my town. I will be following on line from now on but am disappointed to learn that “the rag” is gone.
Call me old-fashioned, but a really prefer reading the news from an actual newspaper. That being said, thanks for letting us know, Cal. “The Citizen” newspaper will be missed in our home.
Warm regards to you all.
Me too – sad to see it go and I have an old fashioned need to spread out a real newspaper and read it. But I have adjusted in less than a week and find the electronic version better in the sense that there are daily changes or additions so I actually check it every day.
Next I’m going to cancel the AJC. That daily driveway drop is getting expensive and for $8.99/mo. I can get the electronic version or just read WSB TV and radio websites for free. They have almost all except for obituaries.
Probably for the best. Most of the time this driveway rag never made it into the house – it went right into the recycling bin. Interestingly enough, today was the first time in 8 months that I bothered to even take it out of the plastic that surrounds it. After reading a few sentences, it confirmed why that was. Ba-bye.
Classy, SMH!