Effective the week of Feb. 15, the newspaper will publish five days per week, from Tuesday to Saturday.
"The Monday edition of the Citizen has always been our smallest in terms of advertising revenue and for news," publisher Colleen Sparrow said. "We are refocusing our efforts to serve our advertisers and our readers Tuesday through Saturday."
Home delivery rates will remain unchanged. "The cost of home delivery is only partly covered by subscription revenue, and the subscription price still represents a substantial discount off the cost of purchasing the paper at newsstands," Sparrow said. The move will result in substantial cost savings, which will ensure the newspaper remains profitable in a challenging advertising market, she added.
The Citizen is also changing its flyer delivery business. Flyers will now be assembled at an automated facility in Vancouver where Glacier Media, the owner of the Citizen, also handles flyers for other community markets. The flyers will then be trucked to Prince George for free distribution with a new weekly Citizen publication for both subscribers and non-subscribers.
As a result of these changes, the Citizen is eliminating most of its mailroom department, changing hours of work in the pressroom and slightly reducing the size of its business office. "I want to thank all of our departing staff, particularly our mailers and inserters, for their hard work and efforts over the years," Sparrow said. "The Citizen has changed many times over its 100 years of business due to technology and automation. This is part of that necessary change to keep the Citizen as a sustainable business that serves the community."
