Staff Report

Effective next week, The Jessamine Journal will no longer include TV listings in the newspaper as part of the ongoing efforts to focus all its resources on publishing local news you cannot find anywhere else.

“This was a very difficult decision because we know some readers look to our TV listings for this information. However, we have continued to see that the majority of people access these programming guides through their TV service provider or the internet,” Journal publisher Michael Caldwell said. “This change allows us to better utilize our valuable resources to do what we can do best and focus on our core mission of providing local news and sports coverage for Jessamine County.”

This change is part of a larger initiative of expense reductions and reallocation of resources.

This decision has been considered thoroughly over the past several months and was ultimately driven by two key factors.

First, rapid increases in newsprint costs, driven by recent and substantial tariffs, have caused a nearly 40-percent increase in materials costs, with no clear end in sight for rising newsprint prices. The raw materials used to produce the paper have been impacted as well.

Second, the move helps The Jessamine Journal best match the changing reader trends of more people accessing news and information online.

“We want to serve all our readers to the best of our ability and have made a number of important changes that did not impact our readers at all, but this is one that does,” Caldwell said. “It is far past time for us to have honest conversations about the need to evolve.

“This change will continue our refocused efforts of providing the news and stories about the community that our readers want.”