The Cedar Rapids Gazette and Dubuque Telegraph-Herald will switch next month to printing the paper only three days a week.

A January 14 email to subscribers from president Kelly Homewood and executive editor Zack Kucharski said that effective February 17, the Gazette will print editions on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, rather than the current seven days a week. Telegraph-Herald publisher Mike Fortman wrote in a January 12 column that beginning February 15, the newspaper will move from its current six-day print schedule to printing on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Leaders of both newspapers pointed to economic realities as they explained the decision.

Homewood and Kucharski wrote,

Publishing a newspaper every day has long been a point of pride throughout our 142-year history. But significant changes in user habits and financial realities have been evolving in Iowa – and across the country. 

The costs of producing and delivering the print edition continues to increase while the number of readers consuming or advertising in print have been declining. 

While we’ve been able to weather these changes longer than hundreds of other newspapers across the country, we’re not immune from needing to make bold adjustments to remain financially sustainable and being able provide the level of trusted journalism that helps Eastern Iowa thrive.

At the Telegraph-Herald, Fortman wrote, “This decision has not been made lightly.” He said the “evolving landscape of news consumption and the economic realities of print media” made it necessary.

Over the past 15 years, the newspaper industry’s declining print advertising revenues and rising production costs have put significant pressure on the traditional print-centric business model. At the same time, the shift in how readers consume news — favoring digital platforms — has played a major role in shaping our new approach. We believe that by adjusting our print schedule, just as hundreds of newspapers across the country have already done, we can ensure the longevity and sustainability of our local news coverage.

Both the Gazette and the Telegraph-Herald will continue to publish breaking news and other content daily on the newspapers’ websites.

Fortman referred to data from the Pew Research Center on Americans’ growing preference to get their news online. A September 2024 fact sheet from Pew noted, “A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 57% who say they do so often.” Pew also found, “In 2024, just 26% of U.S. adults say they often or sometimes get news in print, the lowest number our surveys have recorded.” Even among survey respondents over age 65, 27 percent said they prefer to get news on a digital device, while only 8 percent said they preferred print publications.

Fortman said he’d heard from readers who “never imagined themselves reading it on their phone, tablet or computer — until they tried it. Those same readers now say they could never imagine going back to reading a printed newspaper. One of the many features they love about the digital version is they can ‘pinch’ the text and make it larger, which makes it easier to read.”

To my knowledge, the Quad-City Times—the largest of the six Iowa properties owned by Lee Enterprises—is the only Iowa newspaper still producing print editions seven days a week. Four Lee entities—The Sioux City Journal, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Mason City Globe-Gazette, and Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil—moved in June 2023 to producing print editions only on on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

The Des Moines Register, which has been Iowa’s most widely-read newspaper for more than a century, stopped printing a Saturday edition in March 2022.

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Top image of a pile of newspapers is by chris276644, available via Shutterstock.