Baltimore Evening Sun To Close p. 15

By: Editorial Staff 85-year-old paper to cease publication on Sept. 15; morning
Sun will be redesigned to incorporate features of both papers sp.

THE SUN WILL set over Baltimore on Sept. 15, when the 85-year-old Evening Sun is slated to cease publication.
The following Monday, Sept. 18, the morning Baltimore Sun will debut a redesigned paper that incorporates features of both the evening and morning publications, as well as new attributes of its own.
The decision to fold the Times Mirror-owned evening paper and focus efforts on publishing one paper each day came after two years of research with more than 7,000 readers and nonreaders.
"The decision to cease publication of the Evening Sun was difficult," stated publisher and CEO Mary Junck in a release.
"The Evening Sun has been an integral part of our history since it began publishing on April 18, 1910.
"Many great journalists, such as H.L. Mencken and William Manchester, worked at the Evening Sun. It's touched the lives of countless Marylanders and helped shape our community, of which we're all proud.
"But a consumer shift to morning papers, which has claimed many other evening papers across the country ? and is reflected in sharply declining evening circulation here ? led us to our decision," Junck said.
More than 500 evening newspapers have ceased publication or switched to morning circulation in the last 35 years, according to published reports.
At 264,583, the morning Sun's circulation is at an all-time high, according to the paper.
The Evening Sun's circulation stands at 86,360, a decline of 100,000 since 1987 and an all-time low since 1927, the earliest that its Audit Bureau of Circulations records go.
The company said it expects to retain most of the more than 1,700 employees and hopes to limit the number of jobs lost through layoffs and/or voluntary termination incentives to about 50. Attrition, reassignment and reduction in overtime shifts will be incorporated. Staffs of the two newspapers were merged three years ago.
The Sun expects to lose about 15,000 sales, mostly from readers who bought both newspapers, and it hopes to convert the evening-only readers to the morning paper.
A sales and promotion campaign for the new paper is slated for September.
The new Sun ? produced by Sun designers and editors along with newspaper designer Roger Black ? plans to include 14 additional pages every day, an 8% increase in news space.
New features will include an expanded and stand-alone business section, with more local and regional business news Tuesday through Friday; a new, expanded weekly entertainment guide; more news about Baltimore City and Baltimore county; an expanded comics section with a selection of strips from both papers; an enhanced, color weather map; more information in headlines and indexes; and a redesigned classified section with bolder category titles and an index.
The paper will use a Century type, which the Sun used from 1920 to 1970, and its page designs will be updated versions of 1940s styles.