Montana Standard publisher quits

Montana Standard publisher Janet Taylor will leave in April. Taylor will become publisher at a "northwest publishing group" -- it must be a competitor since it wasn't named. An interim publisher will be appointed.

(Via e-mail)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch increasing price to $1?

At the end of this story about the Post-Dispatch's smaller web width, the anchor says the daily newsstand price of the paper soon will increase from 75 cents to $1. I'm told that newsroom employees and editors don't know about a price increase. Can anyone confirm or deny?



(Via e-mail)

Post-Star lays off 11

The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., laid off 10 full-time and one part-time employee Tuesday. The layoffs account for 7.5 percent of the paper's work force. The Post-Star laid off four employees in December.

We're nearing the end of Lee's second quarter. In the past, Lee papers have announced layoffs at the end of the quarter. Send layoff news and tips to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch cuts metro and business, adds moxie

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch joins the ranks of Lee papers now using a 44-inch web width. The paper also cut its standalone business and metro sections.

The Post-Dispatch has also kicked off a new advertising campaign, "Turn up the moxie," complete with scary paint colors throughout the paper's building (left).

I'm not sure everyone's on board with the moxie campaign: It looks like some employees took to Twitter to mock it.

Tucson Citizen may not close after all

The Tucson Citizen was slated to close March 21; now it might not. Gannett says there are two buyers for the afternoon paper, and it will stay open "day to day." The Citizen and Lee's Arizona Daily Star operate under a JOA.

Carriers laid off at Post-Dispatch?

McClatchy's Gannett's Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat will lay off 27 employees and cut three open positions by next week. At the bottom of the News-Democrat's story about its layoffs is a paragraph that says the paper recently started delivering the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in southern Illinois:

(President and Publisher Jay) Tebbe said the job reductions might have been higher if not for other cost-cutting measures, consolidating some of the company's offices to its main headquarters building in Belleville, and signing a contract to deliver the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to P-D customers in parts of Southwestern Illinois.

I assume Post-Dispatch carriers were laid off when this work was outsourced. I know this blog has several Missouri readers -- has anyone heard anything about that?

(Via e-mail)

E&P on Lee Lodge, plane

Fitz & Jen of Editor & Publisher share the info you helped unearth on the Lee Lodge and sale of the corporate jet. Read it here.

Tucson Citizen to close

Gannett's Tucson Citizen will close March 21, which could help Lee's Arizona Daily Star. The two papers have been in a joint operating agreement since 1940, and have split costs and profits 50-50. (The Star is the bigger of the two papers.) That JOA continues through 2015, meaning Gannett will share the costs and profits until then.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently got out of its JOA with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, which closed in 1986.