I wrote recently that the economic downturn was going to push a newspaper industry that was already struggling to the brink.
In New Mexico, there’s another casualty.
The Las Vegas Optic announced today that it’s going to end its “long history” as a daily and begin publishing only three days a week starting March 2. The Monday-Friday paper, which has published since 1879, will become a Monday, Wednesday and Friday paper.
“Economic circumstances necessitate the change. We’ve got to cut expenses,” Optic Publisher Tom McDonald said in a posting on the newspaper’s Web site.
The newspaper’s scaling back comes at a time that many other state newspapers, including the Albuquerque Journal and Santa Fe New Mexican, have experienced budget cuts. Newspapers across the nation are facing similar struggles.
This is a sad day for the newspaper industry in New Mexico and for the residents of San Miguel, Mora and Guadalupe counties. The newspaper, which has a paid circulation of 4,359, follows the Journal and New Mexican, which have already scaled back their coverage of communities north of Santa Fe.
Who will pick up the slack? Someone needs to start an online publication up there.