When you get your Texarkana Gazette on Tuesday, it will look different.
Most notably, the pages won't be as wide. When printing shifts to Little Rock on Monday, the page width will decrease by about an inch to 11 1/2 inches-the same width as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Texarkana Gazette pages will be about 1/2 inch shorter, too, mirroring the length of the Democrat-Gazette.
Most newspapers in the U.S. have narrowed the width of their pages in the past decade. In other markets, many readers have found this width easier to navigate and use. We hope you do, too.
The size of the type used in articles will stay the same. The size of some comics and puzzles has been reduced proportionately, but these standing features remain, as do all regular features and our stable of syndicated columnists.
Tabloid-size special sections such as Active Age, Health Beat and TV Times will be resized slightly.
Adjusting to the industry standard allows the Texarkana Gazette a higher degree of efficiency in production, more press capacity and the ability to run color on more pages and improve and better control print quality.
The Little Rock facility has two state-of-the-art presses that go straight to plate, eliminating several costly steps required in the Texarkana process.
With these improvements in place, more attention and resources can be focused on our award-winning and community-minded journalism.
Company officials do not expect this switch to Little Rock to affect on-time delivery in the long-term, although there may be hiccups the first few days. Some subscribers may not get their newspapers at the usual time, a circulation department manager said. However, all deliveries should be made by 7 a.m.
In some instances, this change will affect the newspaper's ability to get late breaking news into the print edition. To offset this, the Gazette is committed to a stronger, more active online presence, adding content to our website, texarkanagazette.com, and ramping up reporting efforts on it and our other online platforms.
Company officials announced in mid-December that printing would switch from here to Little Rock in January. In a few months, the printing for three other WEHCO Media newspapers in Southwest Arkansas-El Dorado News-Times, Camden News and the Banner-News in Magnolia-also will be moved to company facilities in Little Rock. Regional consolidation of printing operations has been trending in the industry.