The Coastal Courier, Liberty County’s long-standing source for local news and event information, will reduce its printing schedule beginning the first week of October. As we transition to a two-edition-per-week frequency, all of Friday’s features, including the community calendar, entertainment news, local sports, business news and Living Well will be rolled into either the Wednesday or Sunday editions. Advertising circulars and local advertising offers also will be combined with the Wednesday and Sunday editions. The Sunday edition will also include two full pages of color comics, a feature many readers have requested.
In addition to the revamped midweek and weekend issues, we will put a renewed focus on our online and digital products, which currently include our main website, coastalcourier.com. The new features will include a weekly interview program called “Liberty Talks,” more event-based video clips and enhanced breaking-news coverage. We will continue to utilize social-media outlets, such as the Courier’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, to reach readership segments who prefer to receive their news in non-traditional formats.
And our quarterly lifestyles magazine, Liberty Life, will increase in frequency from four editions per year to five — a change our subscribers have been asking for since we rolled out the popular magazine more than four years ago.
“This transition to two publishing days per week will allow us to deliver more news pages to our readers on Wednesdays and Sundays and to post local news on coastalcourier.com as it happens. Coastalcourier.com continues to receive an average of 50,000 total page views each week, and that number will only grow,” Courier publisher Mark Griffin said. “This change in publication frequency will allow us to provide local news and information in a solid business model for years to come. The Coastal Courier has been Liberty County’s primary source for local news, sports and information for 34 years, continuing the tradition of The Liberty Herald and other publications dating back to 1871. We are committed to preserving that heritage.”
The Coastal Courier remains dedicated to the Liberty and Long county communities as we implement our plans, adapt to the changing local-news climate and work to facilitate a financially sustainable business model for the coming years.
“As editor of the largest local-news-gathering operation in the immediate area, I’m excited we’ve decided to increase the Courier’s investment in Liberty and Long county media operations. In addition to our printed newspaper presence, our heightened digital efforts will provide our faithful readers, advertisers and supporters with plenty of timely, hyper-local content and communication opportunities,” Courier managing editor Hollie Moore Barnidge said.
Like many businesses in our community, the Coastal Courier has weathered the economic downturn and troop fluctuations that impact the local economy. However, we remain steadfast in our mission to educate the public, serve as a government watchdog and honor our readers’ trust by adhering to the highest ethical standards.
“The role of local-news organizations to deliver accurate and fair news of importance to citizens is more important than ever,” Griffin said. “As our local community continues to grow, we intend to uphold our commitment to deliver news and information to meet the needs of our audience.”
Courier to upgrade, move features
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