Starting This Fall, The Portland Mercury Will Publish a Paper Every Other Week

Last year, the alt-weekly's sister publication also switched to a biweekly schedule.

By Shannon Gormley

Starting this fall, the Mercury will publish biweekly. The paper made the  announcement today on its blog.

The Mercury has published on a weekly schedule since it was founded in 2000. The blog published today explains the reason for the transition as follows:

Last year, The Stranger, which is The Mercury's Seattle-based sister publication, also switched from a weekly to a biweekly paper. At the time, The Mercury wrote a blog addressing the change and their plans to remain a weekly paper.

Publishing less frequently reduces paper and ink costs, which is often one f the largest overhead expenses for papers. The Mercury's new format mirrors The Stranger's—a larger paper that's stapled together, rather than the tabloid format that most alternative newspapers conform to.

How print media and alt-weeklies in particular have adapted or failed adapt to an increasingly digital industry was widely covered last year when Village Voice became an online only publication, LA Weekly underwent a staff overhaul and buy out and Baltimore City Paper ceased publication entirely.

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