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December 23, 2005

Chris Voccio The Tribune-Democrat Fri Dec 23, 2005, 01:55 PM EST

Merry Christmas! There, I said it. I know you’re not supposed to say it, or write it, anymore, and I know it would have been much more politically correct to wish you a Happy Wintertime, but I’d prefer to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.

This is the first time you’re getting a copy of The Tribune-Democrat on Christmas Day.

Well, not really. You’ve gotten it on Christmas Day before if Christmas Day was a Sunday. Our policy in the past was to publish on Christmas, and four other holidays that in the past we considered nonpublishing days, if it was a Sunday. So even if we didn’t decide to start publishing every day of the year, which we did, you would still get a paper today because it’s not only Christmas, but it’s also Sunday. I know that sounds confusing, and indeed it is confusing.

Going forward, it’s much simpler. Basically, we’re now publishing The Tribune-Democrat every day of the year. We found that our readers missed the paper on holidays, and many of them were actually reading a paper on the holidays, only they were reading some other paper.

Publishing on Christmas Day creates issues for many of our employees and independent contractors, but I think I can speak for all of us when I say that our customers come first. So Merry Christmas!

q q q

Happy New Year!!! It’s a little early, but I can’t wait for the calendar to move to 2006.

And not just because I’m so excited about our first Celebration Johnstown!

This has been a tough year for the newspaper industry.

For many industries, really.

The spike in energy costs earlier in the year impacted The Tribune-Democrat, and hit our independent contractors, who distribute the paper, particularly hard.

But the industry that really took it on the chin when gasoline prices rose so dramatically was the automobile industry. We all read about how Detroit is closing plants and laying off thousands of workers. But it hits a lot closer to home than that.

Auto dealers across the country, including right here in Pennsylvania, saw their sales drop off dramatically.

And when this happens, they slow down their advertising plans. And when that happens, newspapers, which nationwide account for a huge percentage of auto dealer advertising, also took it on the chin.

So gas prices pummeled The Tribune-Democrat and our friends in the auto business simultaneously. Because of this, we both had to adjust the way we do business. The recent reduction in gas prices will likely help the auto business, and year-end promotions will likely boost their sales.

On the newspaper side, we had to back off of some improvements we had planned to make to the newspaper.

We had to make changes to our newspaper to either reduce expenses or increase revenues. It was either this or go the route that newspapers across the country have had to go, and that is massive layoffs. We’re resisting that and trying to make changes that we can easily reverse in time.

But I believe 2006 will be a much better year. Last year was a very solid year for this newspaper, and we expect 2006 to rebound from the tough year 2005 was. We hope to be able to upgrade the newspaper and serve you, our readers, much better in the process.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Chris Voccio is publisher of The Tribune-Democrat and can be reached at cvoccio@cnhi.com or 532-5111.

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