MONTROSE, Colo.—Residents of Montrose, named for Sir Walter Scott’s Legend of Montrose, arose Saturday morning to find their newspaper outside their door.
The Montrose Daily Press launched a new edition Saturday as it switched to a morning publication. The circulation department said there were no reports of glitches.
Celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, the Daily Press had previously only been published on weekdays and Sunday.
“It is time to do this,” publisher Stephen Woody said. “The market has expanded and changed to such a degree, the community deserves a 365-days-a-year newspaper, and a conversion to AM delivery.”
Woody said the switch gives advertisers all-day exposure to readers in print and online and offers readers local news in the morning, when many other competing daily publications are delivered.
“Business is continually introducing new products. Stores are open 24 hours a day now, grocery stores sell TV sets. Everything’s changed, so we’re changing too,” he said.
The newspaper hired new staffers in the production, circulation and editorial departments as part of the change and also launched a redesigned Web site.
“I believe you attract more readers when you give them more instead of less,” Woody said.
The Daily Press, begun in 1882 when Montrose was founded, began streaming video production in 2006 and started a cooperative news partnership with KKCO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Grand Junction. Last fall, the newspaper moved to a new building which has an Internet/podcasting studio and an expanded press line.
Montrose, at 5,794 feet, roughly halfway between Grand Junction and Telluride has become an increasingly popular destination, and the county’s population has increased more than 36 percent since 1960. Improvements on Highway 50 have speeded up connections to Grand Junction.
In the late 19th century, railroad connections made it an important shipping center for mines in the nearby San Juan Mountains.
The opening of the Gunnison Tunnel in 1909 brought water for irrigation, making it an agricultural center. Corn from nearby Olathe is famous for the characteristics that result from growing it at such a high elevation.
