Your guide to the Belleville News-Democrat’s new publication schedule, plus new features
Belleville News-Democrat readers will notice several major changes beginning Monday, Oct. 30. Here’s what you need to know – and where to find your favorite content.
Print schedule: Starting this week we will publish print newspapers on Wednesdays and Sundays. The Sunday edition will arrive on Saturdays. All delivery will be handled by the U.S. Postal Service. We will offer digital editions on postal holidays. Single copies also will be available at select retail locations.
eEdition schedule: The eEdition, a digital replica of your newspaper, will continue to publish seven days a week at bnd.com and via our digital app available on your cellphone and tablets. And we’ll continue to publish news digitally throughout the day, every day, including late-breaking news — such as election results, government meetings and crime. The eEdition also includes the lengthy Extra Extra package of additional national news, sports, features and opinion content.
Website, apps, social media, newsletters: We update our website, apps, social media accounts and newsletters seven days a week.
Where to find your favorite content
News: The print editions of the paper will have more pages of news content, and we’ll continue to place our top journalism in print. Most stories will appear online — on the website and often in the eEdition — before they are featured in the print editions.
Puzzles: Puzzles will be published daily in the eEdition. The print editions will include puzzles from nonprint days — so the Wednesday paper, for example, will have the Monday and Tuesday puzzles, too.
Comics: Comics will be published daily in the eEdition. In print, you’ll see the comics scheduled for that day.
TV listings: TV listings, including the sports-specific listings, will be published daily in the eEdition. In print, you’ll see the listings for that specific day.
Weather: Weather will run daily in the eEdition and in each print edition.
Obituaries and Death Notices: Obits and death notices will run daily in the eEdition and in each print edition.
New Features
Homepage upgrades: We have a fresh look at the top of the homepage that makes it quick and easy to find six of our top stories. We’ve also added a subscribers-only editors’ picks component lower on the page where our best journalism is displayed for several days at a time so you can catch up on stories you might have missed.
eEdition portal: We’ve launched a new eEdition portal and reader interface. The new interface makes it easier to select the edition and section you want to read. We’ve added two new sections to Extra Extra — Xtra Wheels and Xtra Money for automotive and personal finance coverage.
Sunday QR codes: Every Sunday we will include QR codes on Page 2A that you can scan using your phone’s camera so you can connect to special content, which might include videos that accompany print stories and other digital elements.
New content: On Wednesdays, we’re adding personal finance and food pages that include recipes and tips for food prep. On Sundays, we’re adding faith coverage and tech news.
Coming Soon: We also plan to add a new spot for event listings on our homepage, where you can search for local events — and add your own.
With the changes this week comes this promise: We will continue to provide strong, independent and essential local news coverage daily for BND subscribers.
After all, our roots run deep in southwestern Illinois, having published our first edition in January 1858. We’ve evolved as the times and readers’ needs changed over the past 165-plus years, but what hasn’t changed is our commitment to the communities we serve.
That commitment continues as we begin the next chapter.
As always, we thank you for your readership and support of the BND.
Subscribers with questions about this week’s changes can contact our Customer Care team at 1-800-559-6378 or customerservice@bnd.com.
And if you have ideas, tips or questions about coverage, please feel free to contact me at jcouch@bnd.com.
Jeffry Couch is editor and general manager of the Belleville News-Democrat. He joined the staff as editor in June 2004.
