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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

S-R delivery prices, sections to change

Shift attributed to costs, advertising downturn

Home delivery of The Spokesman-Review will cost an additional $1.25 a month next year, the company announced Tuesday.

The price increase is one of several changes planned in response to rising production and delivery costs and a downturn in advertising, the company said.

The increase will apply to new subscriptions starting Jan. 1 and to existing subscriptions upon renewal. Through this month, subscribers may renew at current prices for up to a year.

Newsstand prices will not increase, nor will online, mobile and e-edition prices.

The Spokesman-Review has avoided raising home-delivery prices in Spokane and Kootenai counties for almost five years, distribution director Dan Johnson said.

Other changes include:

• Starting in January, TV Week magazine will be available only to subscribers who request a copy by home delivery, buy a newsstand copy of the paper or pay for full access to spokesman.com. The publication date will move to Saturday from Sunday. To keep getting TV Week, call (509) 459-5000 or (800) 338-8801 and follow the prompts to leave your name, address and phone number.

• The newspaper soon will rename the Saturday automotive section AutoFinderNW.com and relaunch the affiliated website with more opportunities for auto shoppers. AutoPrivileges will let users earn points online and exchange them for discounts at participating dealers and service vendors. Text2Drive, a phone-based text-messaging service, will let users view inventories of participating local dealers and shop for cars without going online.

• On Feb. 3 the North, South and West Plains Voice publications will be combined into a single section on Thursdays. The Valley Voice will continue to appear as a separate section Thursdays and Saturdays. Handle Extra, the Sunday Voice section for North Idaho, will be discontinued in January. The weekly columns by Betsy Z. Russell and Dave Oliveria will continue to appear on Sundays in the main newspaper.

• In February, DASH, a new food and cooking magazine from the publisher of PARADE, will begin appearing monthly in The Spokesman-Review. It will replace RELISH, a sister publication of American Profile magazine.

Publisher W. Stacey Cowles said, “We are confident these changes … will assure our ability to publish and deliver the paper seven days a week, maintain the quality of our journalism and deal with a still-soft economy and the forces buffeting our industry.”