Cincy Enquirer to cut days it runs classified

The Cincinnati Enquirer will cut the number of days it runs classified ads, switch to a narrower page-format and condense some of its sections in an effort to reduce costs as advertisers spend less.

In a Sunday front-page letter to readers, Cincinnati Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan detailed the steps the daily paper plans to make in order to use less newsprint and ink, its second-largest expense. She cited difficult economic conditions for the changes, which are effective today.

Those include the elimination of traditional classified advertising on Mondays and Tuesdays. Its Life section will move behind the Local section on Mondays through Thursdays and will be renamed. The editorial page will move to the front section of the paper, and the Sunday television guide will be combined with Life and Travel sections. The daily television grids will be reduced to include only evening programming of the major broadcast stations.

Buchanan also said the Enquirer will be making a switch to a narrower page size in March, also in an effort to use less paper and ink.

The format changes come on the heels of December job cuts at the Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as across other newspapers owned by parent Gannett Co. Prior to the December layoff, 60 Enquirer employees left the paper as part of a voluntary severance plan announced for Gannett’s newspaper division in August. Gannett has said it expects revenue to fall 8 percent from 2007.