Daily News Switches to Morning Format

After more than a century-and-a-half as an afternoon newspaper, the Newport Daily News is shifting to a morning publication in an effort to remain competitive in a world with increasing online competition and 24-hour news cycles.

"It's become imperative for us to deliver news on a more timely manner to our readers," Executive Editor Sheila Mullowney told the Associated Press. 

Mullowney said the change will let the Daily News have fresher news in the morning paper and stories about local government and high school sports, for example, will be timelier.

The paper will be available on newsstands by 6 a.m. 

“This is going to give our product an even longer shelf life, and that’s good for our readers and our advertisers,” said Publisher William F. Lucey. “At a time when a lot of people wake up in the morning and grab a cup of coffee, they’ll be able to read the local paper and find out what’s going on around them.”

The only daily on Aquidneck Island, the Newport Daily News is the only newspaper left in Rhode Island besides The Providence Journal that still operates its own press. Along with the daily paper, the press in Newport prints sister publications, the South County Independent and the North East Independent, on Wednesdays.

Coinciding with the daily paper's shift, the two South County weeklies will be printed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday instead of 1 p.m. This lets them squeeze in more late-breaking news and reports from Tuesday night government meetings into Thursday's paper.

But the change also means the paper won't reach newsstands late Wednesday evening anymore — something people "in the know" in South County took advantage of to get the headlines hours before their neighbors.

Independent Newspapers Managing Editor Liz Boardman announced the change on Thursday and said though early bird readers may be bummed, it is a positive change for the paper.

"The shift allows us to deliver more up-to-date news in the print edition each Thursday," Boardman wrote in an editor's note to readers. "For example, the verdict in the Patrick 'Tim' McDonald case returned just after the Jan. 16 edition of the South County Independent came off the press – too late to include it. Some weeks, Tuesday night meeting stories don’t make it into the paper because of the timing of page production."

Now, "we can offer the freshest paper possible each Thursday — giving our readers even more reason to pick up a copy or subscribe," Boardman said.