FEATURED: In the Times-Dispatch

All last week, we announced a series of major changes to the Richmond Times-Dispatch that begin today. This prompted hundreds of conversations with readers about what we are doing with your newspaper.

As a Times-Dispatch reader for more than 25 years, I feel your angst. As the publisher, I remain fiercely optimistic about our newspaper. But we're in an unsettling time.

Newspapers get accused of printing only bad news. Well, here it is: The Times-Dispatch will publish 16 to 20 fewer pages each week. Our stand-alone Flair sections will disappear on three days, even though most of their high-readership content will appear elsewhere in the paper. We're raising our subscription rates, though the increase averages 3 cents a day. We've painfully stopped delivering The Times-Dispatch to western parts of the state because we have lost money on those routes for years. We have fewer employees than we did in 2005.

So, what's the good news?

More than ever, we are committed to publishing a compelling, informative and relevant newspaper each day and being the leading provider of high-quality news, advertising, commentary and entertainment in central Virginia. We have the talent and resolve from our employees to meet that challenge. We still have the largest newsroom and largest multimedia advertising staff in the region, as well as the largest Sunday circulation among Virginia newspapers.

Rest assured that we'll add pages for major news, such as the Virginia Tech tragedy, or when we report important community developments, such as our examination of the Richmond City Jail. The Times-Dispatch still goes to 66 counties in Virginia.

With this week's changes, we'll also introduce new concepts in presenting news and information, and we'll beef up at least two niche topics, Food and Home & Garden, in response to reader requests. Our adjustments also are aimed at creating a more efficient newspaper because many of you keep telling us you don't have time in your busy lives to read a newspaper each morning.

So, why change?

Our business is going through a transformation in which general news and highly specialized information is available, often for free, on multiple platforms, such as online or on your cell phone. At the same time, we're feeling the effects of a stubborn economic downturn, fed by an apparently tapped-out middle class.

Last week, the state's largest electric utility said it would seek an 18.3 percent increase in rates. You probably hear such news and wonder how you could cut back and save. We do, too.

The planned fewer pages can be traced, in part, to higher newsprint prices, which are projected to rise by more than 12 percent this year. The subscription-rate increase has its roots in higher gas prices and other rising manufacturing costs. Our retailers, on whom we rely for advertising dollars, are hoping for better days as well -- some, such as A&N and CompUSA, have gone out of business, taking with them ad dollars we no longer have.

Thank goodness for the thousands of valued readers who have subscribed to this newspaper for 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50-plus years. In our conversations last week, many of you acknowledged that your children, their friends or younger neighbors don't read a newspaper as their main source of news. This trend stings the newspaper side of the business.

It also worries us all on how informed this community really is or will be in the future. Feeding the broader information habit is one reason our newsroom has adopted a Web-first approach, so inRich.com is updated throughout the day with breaking news and updates. In the bigger picture, we see where this is going, and that's why Media General has been a multimedia leader.

The Times-Dispatch's livelihood is a balancing act: Publish the best regional newspaper possible given our resources. Expand online capabilities. Launch niche products aimed at satisfying a specific, narrower audience and winning smaller advertisers. Embrace emerging technologies. Do it faster.

To the beloved diehard newspaper readers: We could have avoided cutting the newspaper if we had more paid subscribers, or if legions of retailers, employers, auto dealers and realty agents started 2008 with great success, with more great results to come. That's not happening now.

So let's conclude by leaning forward. We continue to evolve. We're not standing still. We have long-term goals about delivering news, advertising and information when and where you want it.

In the meantime, we adjust. In plain view.

Thank you for reading the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Thomas A. Silvestri is president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.