The Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer are cutting back on their print frequency.
The newspapers, which are based out of a combined office in Middletown Township, announced Thursday night they will cease printing and delivering their publications on Mondays starting April 25.
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In a statement on their websites, the news organizations owned by publicly-traded company Gannett said they will continue to produce a “digital replica e-edition” online for subscribers.
The newspapers will keep printing and delivering editions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
“As trends in readership and advertising have changed, we have been working hard to deliver local news the way Bucks County wants it. Increasingly, that is on-demand, in real time on our website, mobile apps and social media pages,” the statement said.
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The newspapers’ statement also said they will be adding a reporter to help cover local businesses.
Gannett recently ended Saturday print editions at dozens of newspapers to save money and has sold or closed lower-performing publications in recent months.
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The Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer haven’t had a Saturday print issue in years.
The latest cut for the Bucks County newspapers comes after years of reductions. Staff has been slashed by more than 75 percent, its Falls Township printing facility closed and delivery drivers were laid off, and local news coverage has been notably reduced since the local Calkins family sold the newspapers in 2017.
A former Bucks County Courier Times reporter on Friday shared with LevittownNow.com a Calkins Media directory from 2008 that showed 70 reporters and editors covering news and sports in Lower Bucks County. A current online directory for both newspapers that cover the lower, central, and upper portions of Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County currently lists just under 20 reporters and editors working on news and sports.
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The Boston Business Journal recently reported Gannett’s employee headcount nationwide fell 24 percent last year. The company recently completed a cost-reduction plan to yield more than $300 million in annual savings.
Despite the decreased staff and changes in operations to the local newspapers, the reporters have continued to win awards for their journalism in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
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According to Alliance for Audited Media circulation numbers from last spring, the Bucks County Courier Times was averaging 8,059 copies per weekday and 12,211 on Sunday, a drop from past highs of 50,000 copies per day. The average weekday circulation for the Doylestown Intelligencer was just over 6,100.
Gannett, the owner of USA Today and the county’s two daily newspapers, have focused on digital subscriptions by offering deep discounts to lure in customers.
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On a recent earnings call, CEO Mike Reed said the company aims to hit 2 million paid digital subscribers across its several hundred publications by the end of the year.
Gannett recently reported it lost $22.4 million for the final quarter of 2021, but that was less of a loss than the year prior.
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While print revenues continue to decline, the company has touted its increasing digital revenues and growth in non-newspaper-related business services.
Gannett is having an especially bad week after the Wall Street Journal reported a problem with the company’s advertising software across its publications, including in Pennsylvania, resulted in advertisers getting inaccurate information and could have impacted millions of dollars in ads.
In a statement, Gannett officials said they regret passing along wrong information and stated it was an error in their ad system. They said the problem did not impact direct-sold digital advertising.
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Bucks County is served by a number of locally-owned publications, including LevittownNow.com, the Bucks County Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Delaware Valley News, and WBCB News. Like the Gannett newspapers, the Patch.com network and Daily Voice are owned by out-of-area firms.
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