From the Newsroom: Edition will be welcome addition

By Craig Brown, Columbian Editor

Published: December 26, 2020, 6:02am

The Columbian's e-edition is a a digital version of the daily print paper.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in my column that we have been working on a secret project.

It’s time to let you in on the secret. We are bringing back a Monday edition, beginning Jan. 11.

Notice I said “Monday edition” and not “Monday newspaper.” Our new edition will be available to our subscribers as an e-edition, but it will not be printed on newsprint.

The new edition will consist of two sections. The front section generally will have six pages and will contain a local front-page story, along with four other news pages containing the news of the day and some in-depth stories I think you’ll enjoy. This section will also contain an editorial page with a local editorial and letters.

The second section will have seven pages (since this is an e-edition, we can offer an odd number of pages.) The front three pages will be Sports. With the NFL playoffs taking place in January, I am very happy that we will be able to bring all of this news to you on Monday, not Tuesday.

The next three pages of that section will be the daily Life features including the horoscope, an advice column, puzzles, comics and the TV grid. The back page will be weather.

The format of the pages will look the same as our daily newspaper. If you haven’t checked out how our e-editions look online, visit epaper.columbian.com. Use the navigation bar to flip the page. Click on an article or photo, and it will enlarge so you can see it clearly. The more I use this format, the better I like it. It replicates the traditional newspaper reading experience, but with live web links, bigger type and clearer photos.

OK, I know you have some questions. Let me try to answer them:

• Why won’t you print and deliver this Monday edition to your subscribers? For the same reason we dropped it a year ago: The economics of our industry no longer support a Monday printed newspaper, and a major price increase didn’t seem like a good business decision.

• Will you still print the Monday comics, features and TV grid on other days? Yes, we plan to continue to do what we are doing. The Monday TV grid will appear Sundays. Monday comics and features will appear on Tuesdays. But, if you look at the e-edition, you can see them a day early!

• What about reprinting the news from the Monday e-edition? In most cases we won’t reprint the news stories or editorial page from Monday. We will likely reprint “spot news,” including police activity or fires, in the Tuesday print edition.

• How much will this e-edition cost? There will be no change in prices. We have figured out how to do this without having to pass on the increased costs to our customers. You will have to be a subscriber to read it; no single-copy sales.

• How do I see this Monday e-edition? Subscribers to our print edition receive access to our digital products at no extra charge. If you haven’t activated your account, visit www.columbian.com/digital. If you have trouble registering for any of these products, call us at 360-694-2312 or email circulation@columbian.com.

One more thing

Channeling Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, there’s one more thing!

We are starting an Afternoon Briefing newsletter that is free to anyone who wishes to give us their email address and a little demographic information. (Only subscribers have unlimited access to full stories linked from the newsletter, but that’s not a problem for you since you are going to activate your digital account.)

Published weekday afternoons, it will complement our Morning Briefing newsletter and give readers an executive summary of key developments that day, locally and worldwide.

To sign up for this new newsletter, which also starts Jan. 11, or one of our other newsletters, go to columbian.com/newsletters.

In an industry that’s been cutting back for the last 20 years, I can’t tell you how fun it is to add some useful new products. Please check them out next month and let me know what you think.

One more thing

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