AIM Media Texas newspapers The Monitor, Valley Morning Star and The Brownsville Herald will soon cut the number of print editions down to five days per week, Publisher Stephan Wingert announced in a letter to readers Sunday.
Effective May 1, the Monday and Tuesday print editions of these newspapers will no longer be printed and delivered. Seven editions will still be published per week as e-editions will remain available Mondays and Tuesdays and readers will continue to get their print editions Wednesday through Sunday.
Wingert pointed to record inflation driving up the cost of ink, paper and gas and exacerbating losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But while we could have made the decision to continue incurring the rising cost of paper delivery Mondays and Tuesdays, we are committed to passing the savings down to our newsrooms to maintain our journalism in the communities we love,” Wingert wrote.
As this change is made, the newspapers will continue to focus on its digital platforms with plans to roll out new newsletters and more exclusive content at MyRGV.com, which is free for print subscribers and $9.99 a month for new subscribers, according to Wingert.
The publisher said these newsrooms are in the process of merging editorial operations to cover the Rio Grande Valley both regionally and the individual communities as journalists from The Monitor, Star and Herald begin to work collaboratively toward comprehensive coverage of South Texas.
Wingert also pointed to investments AIM Media Texas has made in MyRGV.com, which went live in January 2021 and has since served as the home to these publications’ journalism.
“To illustrate its success, MyRGV.com at its peak reached millions of pageviews in a single month, numbers exceeding our monthly print circulation even in its heyday,” Wingert added. “To say we’re optimistic for the future would be an understatement.”
Those with questions about their subscriptions, rates, and how to activate the MyRGV.com subscription and e-editions, call (956) 683-4300 for The Monitor, (956) 982-6664 for The Brownsville Herald, and (956) 421-9800 for the Valley Morning Star.
