Capital Times to end daily hard copy, focus on Web

It’s becoming more difficult for afternoon dailies to compete with information aired on cable news networks or viewed on the Internet around the clock, reminds Grumpy Editor.

Feeling the pinch, Capital Times, a 17,072-circulation afternoon daily in Madison, Wis., plans to halt most of its print version and focus output on an enhanced Web site starting April 30.

Print frequency will go to two days a week from six.

The newspaper, which competes with the morning Wisconsin State Journal, started 90 years ago.

With the new routine, Capital Times’ news and opinion edition will be published on Wednesdays and distributed with home-delivered Wisconsin State Journal subscriptions.  It also will produce a weekly arts, entertainment and culture section to be distributed on Thursdays with the Wisconsin State Journal.  Both Wednesday and Thursday issues also will be offered free in Madison area newspaper racks.

The move to more Web and less print is expected to see the trimming of 15 to 20 editorial staffers from the current 60.

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

Newspaper editorial ranks continue to dwindle.  Topping the list of upcoming newsroom cuts announced this week:  40 to 50 (out of 100 to 150 jobs) at the Los Angeles Times, part of the Tribune Co. that plans to eliminate 400 to 500 people companywide, while the New York Times plans to reduce editorial positions by 100 this year…In a maneuver that skirts actual staff cuts, BusinessWeek is reassigning 20 contract editorial and production workers to Kelly Services, best noted for temporary staffing services and outsourcing…Very little airtime and print space Tuesday was devoted to marking Abraham Lincoln’s birthday…International Falls, Minn., won a federal trademark Monday making it officially the “Icebox of the Nation” --- on a day the temperature sank to 40 degrees below zero.  The International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Web site’s illustrations, incidentally, show no ice or snow, just lots of greenery and white daisies, apparently in anticipation of  global warming.