SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN ADDS A SATURDAY EDITION

The Southeast Missourian will truly become a "daily" newspaper tomorrow. Addition of a Saturday publication makes the Southeast Missourian a seven-day-a-week newspaper.

By instituting a Saturday edition, the Southeast Missourian hopes to provide readers a more timely offering of news, sports and advertising.

"From a news perspective, not having a Saturday edition has often been a frustration," said Ken Newton, Southeast Missourian editor. "News happens regardless of the day of the week, and by publishing six days we were inevitably behind at times."

For instance, news events that occur on Friday will no longer have to wait for the Sunday edition to be reported. Deaths that occur late Thursday night, with the six-publication schedule, have had to wait until the Sunday edition, causing some hardship in announcing funeral visitation information in the obituary columns.

In addition, Friday is a big night for high school sports in the fall and winter months. Those game accounts would hit the newsstands more than 30 hours after conclusion of the event; now, the stories will be ready for readers the next morning.

The Southeast Missourian is shifting its TV Update magazine, which can usually be found in the Friday edition, to the Saturday publication. In addition, the newspaper is adding as a regular feature a Health page that will look at local medical and wellness issues, and a Finance page that will include stock listings and other week-end information from various markets.

In adding a Saturday edition, the Southeast Missourian joins eight other newspapers in the state that publish full news products seven days a week. That list includes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, the St. Joseph News-Press, the Springfield News Leader, the Joplin Globe, the Columbia Tribune, the Jefferson City News-Tribune and the Sedalia Democrat.

Commencement of the Saturday edition comes one day in front of the 89th anniversary of the Southeast Missourian's founding. During the history of the newspaper, this is not the first time a seven-day-a-week publication has been offered to readers.

On May 5, 1974, the Southeast Missourian began publishing each day of the week with the addition of a Sunday newspaper. By March 27, 1976, the newspaper decided to drop the Saturday edition and resume a six-day schedule.

This continued until November 1992, when the Southeast Missourian again published Saturday newspapers for a five-week holiday period, beginning on Nov. 28 and ending on Dec. 26.