Selma Enterprise, Kingsburg Recorder to combine

The Selma Enterprise and Kingsburg Recorder will combine newspapers starting in mid-July, it was announced this week.

Local coverage will not change and the paper will retain the separate websites, Joe Johnson, weeklies editor, said in a posted statement.

The news operations are owned by Lee Enterprises Newspapers Inc. The combined paper, along with the Hanford Sentinel and the Lemoore Navy News, will stop printing locally after July 18. Press operations will be consolidated three hours away at the Santa Maria Times, another Lee Enterprises paper.

Johnson indicated there would be layoffs of press operators in Selma and Hanford, but did not say how many. Johnson wrote there should no disruptions to the print schedule but asked for readers’ patience with any “hiccups.”

“The reality is that newspapers and media outlets everywhere are changing and the way in which we deliver the news must change as well,” Johnson wrote.

The Selma branch of the company’s office will move from Grant Street to a new location in the city, with the exact spot still undecided.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Selma Enterprise, Kingsburg Recorder to combine."