Print
ShareAccording to the Sun's Web site, the decision came after community input and after both papers determined the partnership would offer expanded news coverage and value to readers and advertisers.
"I think readers of both papers will get a lot better newspaper," Les Daughtry, the Sun's longtime publisher, said from his Galveston home Sunday. He will serve as senior vice president of the company.
"This will take us in new directions. The two papers have been going against each other . . . I've been there for 20 years. By combining both forces, we'll put out a lot better news product. Both papers are award-winning and Galveston County residents will see the best newspaper they've ever had."
Several years of declining advertising and circulation revenues in Texas City led to the partnership, said Daughtry and Dolph Tillotson, the Daily News' publisher. They said combining operations costs and other cuts will allow the paper to "compete more effectively for new business."
The combined papers will carry the Galveston paper's name and will have a paid circulation of about 30,000 and a press run of about 32,000.
Total employment of The Daily News will go from about 102 to about 130.
The new product also will undergo a redesign and have more features, including expanded coupon books and Sunday comics, American Profile magazine, preprinted advertising circulars, broader editorial page coverage and expanded advertising coverage to include society news, food, real estate and autos.
The Daily News will move its mainland employees into the Sun building. Eventually, The Daily News will sell its mainland building.
The paper will be printed on Daily News presses in Galveston, and the Sun's presses will be used to print supplements for the countywide newspaper.
Sun readers will receive the combined product at no additional cost for the life of their existing subscriptions and will be allowed to renew their subscriptions at existing rates through July 1.
