Fewer trees being cut down is good | Four Virginia papers scale back on print schedules

Lee Enterprises, which publishes 11 newspapers in Virginia, is eliminating the Monday print editions of its papers in Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Richmond and Roanoke beginning with what would have been the Monday, Nov. 3 editions.

Bigger question from me on this: why does anybody print newspapers at all anymore?

“Our commitment to delivering the news is unchanged. Reporters and photographers will still produce crucial content for every day, and we will alert you to breaking news as soon as it develops,” the editors of the papers posted online in notes to readers that went up last week.

Yeah, because a newspaper is already old news the second you tell the people at the printing press to start getting the ink rolling.

I first had that realization back in 1998, when I was still an ace cub reporter at The News Virginian in Waynesboro, another Lee Enterprises property.

The interwebs were still in their infancy then; I was among those who had a vision.

---

ICYMI

• Media | Staff layoffs impacting operations at two Virginia newspapers

Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa, is among the legacy publishers still trying to figure out what some of us saw a generation ago.

The company is working its way through a rough financial first quarter of the 2025-2026 fiscal year that began on July 1, with revenue dropping 7.1 percent, and the company reporting a $16.7 million net loss.

Lee said, in response, that it had identified $40 million in cost savings, as it works to beef up its digital subscription base.

“As we look forward into the rest of the fiscal year, we expect digital revenue growth to accelerate, achieving full-year guidance of growth between 7 percent and 10 percent,” Lee Enterprises CEO Kevin Mowbray said in a statement.

Good luck with that, as the Lee Enterprises properties have been cutting staff – The Times-Dispatch reportedly off five of its reporters last month, leaving that newspaper with in the area of 10 reporters on the staff; The News & Advance laid off its sports editor; my alma mater, The News Virginian, laid off its last full-time reporter.

My old paper had dropped back to a three-days-a-week printing schedule in 2023, along with the outlets in Bristol, Charlottesville, Culpeper, Danville and Martinsville.

I don’t know that they’ll figure out that they need to get to zero days a week before they’re out of money.