El Paso Times scales back its print edition

The El Paso Times announced on Wednesday that it is shifting its focus to digital content, and scaling back its print edition.

In a statement released by president Lilia Castillo and editor of Bob Moore, the paper will have fewer national, international and sports stories. From Monday through Saturday, the paper will now have two news sections instead of four.

Castillo and Moore said the biggest change will be to the sports section. Results of previous night’s games will only be available online. Instead, the print section will focus on more feature and analytical stories.

Rida Asfahani is a long-time subscriber to the paper. He said he’s disappointed about the changes to the paper.

“It kind of sucks, there’s something that’s always nice about getting a hard copy and looking through it,” Asfahani said. “I’m a baseball guy so getting the box scores and looking though it was nice. I do look a lot online now, so I don’t really (read) it as much anymore. I guess it’s a sign of the times.”

UTEP multimedia journalism professor Dino Chiecchi, worked in newspapers for over 30 years, including a stint at the El Paso Times.

“My reaction is that regrettably that’s the nature of the industry. The industry is cutting back its paper product, and encouraging its readership to go to the digital world,” Chiecchi said. “I think that the appetite for journalism has not stopped, especially in the environment we’re in now.”

Chiecchi said he hopes the digital platform of newspapers will continue to grow.

“I strongly encourage people to continue looking at these viable, legitimate products, and the El Paso Times is one of them,” Chiecchi said. “They produce a good daily report about the local news. I don’t think that’s going to stop.”

ABC-7 reached out to Moore and Castillo Jones for comments, but did not hear back.

Here’s the cost for different types of subscriptions:

$24 per month – 7-day home delivery (includes online subscription) $18 per month – Friday – Monday home deliver (includes online subscription) $15 per month – Saturday/Sunday home delivery (includes online subscription) $11.89 per month – Only online subscription

The Las Cruces Sun-News, The Carlsbad Current-Argus, and The Alamogordo Daily News, were also scaled back. All of these papers are owned by Gannett.