Portland Tribune Will Cut Its Print Circulation from Two Editions Per Week Down To One

The president of the paper's parent company, Mark Garber, addressed the change in yesterday's paper. "We still must react to continuing waves of change," he wrote.

May Day protesters set a fire to newspaper boxes in the Portland street. (William Gagan)
By Sophie Peel

The Portland Tribune is scaling back its circulation from two print editions per week down to one per week. And starting on Jan. 1, online readers will have to pay for a subscription in order to access stories online.

The decision was announced in the Thursday morning Tribune by Mark Garber, the president of the paper's parent company, Pamplin Media Group. Garber told readers in an editorial that the publication will print one "beefed up" print paper per week, on Thursday.

"This isn't a plea to preserve newspapers, or even the Pamplin Media Group. Rather, it's an appeal to help fund community journalism," wrote Garber on Dec. 19. "Professional journalism costs money—and that's just part of the expense we incur."

The Tribune started printing two editions per week in 2014.

Garber addressed the changing newspaper industry in his article, saying that print advertising has faltered over the years and that "digital competition has eaten around the edges of our business model."

Pamplin owns and operates 25 newspapers across the state.

The Tribune's changes are a familiar sight in Oregon: Over the past decade, larger corporations have swallowed hyper-local publications, layoffs at newspapers are commonplace, and a shift to digital representation continues to gain steam.

"We still must react to continuing waves of change," Garber wrote. "And that's the reason we are having frank discussions with readers this month."

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