Subscribers to the printed edition of the Fresno Bee and Modesto Bee will soon have one less edition on their driveways in the morning.
On Friday, the McClatchy Company announced it intends to stop offering the printed edition of both city’s newspapers of record in the coming months.
Staff at both the Fresno Bee and Modesto Bee newspapers will continue to put together a Saturday edition, but instead of being delivered as a print product, it will exist as a digital version only.
The news was first reported Friday morning by the Fresno Business Journal.
Tim Ritchey, the publisher of the Fresno Bee, told the Business Journal the move is expected to occur next January when the newspaper switches its Saturday edition to a digital-only offering.
“We’ve built a solid tech platform for digital journalism and are focused on serving digital advertisers,” Ritchey told the publication.
McClatchy will not curb printing of its flagship newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, though in recent months it has moved some content to its digital “e-Edition.”
The announcement by McClatchy follows a trend by the news company to trim printed editions in small markets in an effort to reduce costs associated with materials and delivery.
Earlier this year, McClatchy stopped printing a Saturday edition at one of its publications in North Carolina. Executives said that newspaper was chosen as a “test market,” and the test yielded positive results. The company has since trimmed delivery of printed editions at two other newspapers.
