The Oregonian Drops Daily Home Delivery, Plans Layoffs Before Digital Transition

The Oregonian announced Thursday that it will soon discontinue daily home delivery of its print newspaper as it shifts towards a digital strategy.

A new, digitally focused media company, Oregonian Media Group, will launch this fall to expand news and information products in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Beginning October 1, the new company will operate OregonLive.com and publish The Oregonian and its related print products. A separate company, Advance Central Services Oregon, will provide support services for Oregonian Media Group and other companies.

"This strategy will allow us to serve consumers in Oregon and Southwest Washington with more up-to-the-minute, robust news and information online and on mobile devices while continuing the strong enterprise and investigative reporting that The Oregonian and OregonLive.com are so well known for," said N. Christian Anderson III, president and publisher of The Oregonian. Anderson will be president of Oregonian Media Group.

More from a list of frequently asked questions prepared by the paper.

Q: Will you publish a print edition every day of the week?

A: Yes. We will continue to publish The Oregonian seven days a week. The Oregonian will continue to be published daily and sold at outlets in the Portland metropolitan area and elsewhere in the state and southwestern Washington. Home delivery will be Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and include the Saturday edition as a bonus. The Wednesday, Friday and Sunday editions will be enhanced with more content than current editions while the Saturday newspaper will have news and a strong emphasis on sports content, along with classified advertising. Those home delivery subscribers that choose the three-day subscription option will also have access to a digital edition seven days a week. The Oregonian's community newspapers will continue to publish on their current schedules.

Q: Will there be any changes to the home delivery frequency of The Oregonian?

A: Yes. Home delivery will be Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and include the Saturday edition as a bonus. Home delivery subscribers that choose the three-day subscription option also will have access to the digital edition seven days a week. MyDigitalO, as it is called, may be seen at MyDigitalO.com and will be available free to the public for the next two months. In addition, The Oregonian will deliver every day to many retirement homes and other senior citizen facilities.

...

Q: Is this the beginning of the end for The Oregonian?

A: No. We are realigning more resources behind our digital products, increasing the prominence of our newspaper brands and content on OregonLive. These changes are to ensure that we remain part of the community for a long time to come.

The Willamette Week reports that staff cutbacks are coming later this week.

Publisher N. Christian Anderson III informed staff just before 10 am that the paper will continue to publish seven days a week, but will only offer home delivery on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, with the Saturday edition apparently folded into the Sunday delivery. He also announced that newsroom layoffs are beginning immediately.

Anderson told staff this morning that the company will inform them by Friday morning whether they are being laid off.

"The newsroom was just told there will be 'significant layoffs,' w/some new hiring for digital," reporter Anna Griffin wrote on Twitter at 10:51 am. "Somebody open the bar tab."

It remains to be seen whether or not the paper's coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers will be impacted. The paper opted not to send a reporter on a Blazers road trip at the end of the 2011-12 season -- an "unprecedented" move at the time -- but covered the team like usual during the 2012-13 season.

The paper's managing editor called its coverage of the Blazers "a high priority" last year.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter