Switching from Tuesday to Wednesday is good for everyone

You probably wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but this newspaper you’re holding in your hand is a piece of history.

Well, that may be a bit of an overstatement. It’s closer to the truth to say this July 12, 2016 edition will go down as a factoid relic in the Frontiersman’s ongoing story as the voice of the Mat-Su Valley.

Today’s edition is the last Tuesday edition of the Frontiersman. Starting next week, July 20, we will begin publishing on Wednesdays rather than Tuesdays. We’re keeping the same publishing schedule the rest of the week — Fridays and Sundays.

Having started work here one week ago today, I own a tough-to-beat trivial distinction as the only Frontiersman managing editor to have presided over the final Tuesday edition — on his first attempt, no less — so trust me when I say this change is better for everyone involved.

First, it means more stories and better stories, especially those about Saturday events that will make it in our Sunday edition. Naturally, our Wednesday edition will be newsier, too. Secondly, it gets our Wednesday grocery inserts on the street in sync with the start of their advertised sales.

There’s a reason every newspaper you’ve ever seen anywhere you go in this country — whether it prints seven days a week or one — prints on Wednesdays.

It dates back to the good ol’ days when newspapers were king and everyone in the advertising world believed housewives all spent their Wednesdays clipping out coupons and handling the family’s grocery shopping.

Things have changed considerably since then, but the tradition of the grocery insert in your Wednesday newspaper never has. In fact, it’s expanded to include all sorts of inserts from chain retailers of nearly every persuasion.

And this is just one of many changes you’ll see in the Frontiersman over the course of the summer.

Look for a faster and more responsive web site posting stories as they happen, as well as the launch of video on our web site with interviews with newsmakers, Frontiersman staff and on-the-scene reports.

In addition, this Opinion page will continue to expand and improve its reach across the Mat-Su Valley and the state. We will soon be kickstarting our own editorial board, featuring influential local people and members of our own staff to provide a comprehensive and well-reasoned voice in our editorial presence with “Our View” running each Wednesday, as well as Fridays and Sundays as issues arise.

I’ll be holding down this rail each Sunday with my own column, and our publisher, Dennis Anderson, will begin his weekly column this Friday.

His first will reveal the biggest and most exciting change The Frontiersman is prepping for this summer, so you won’t want to miss that.

Also, this summer, we’ll be starting a Readers’ Advisory Board in which we’ll invite readers to Frontiersman offices once a month to talk about what they’d like to see more of, and what they’d like to less of in the paper, all the while chatting over coffee and donuts.

If you’d like to be part of our Readers Advisory Board, send me an e-mail at matt.hickman@frontiersman.com, and I’ll put you on a mailing list with updates about our upcoming meetings.

We’re excited to hear your thoughts on The Frontiersman and anything and everything else Mat-Su.