Effective next week, The Interior 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 television service provider or the internet,” Interior 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 Lincoln 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 Interior 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. It is far past time for us to have honest conversations about the need to evolve,” Caldwell said. “We can no longer afford to try to be everything to everybody. This change will continue our refocused efforts of providing the news and stories about the community that our readers want.”