Spokane Chronicle to cease publication

Citing years of steadily declining readership, owners of The Spokane Chronicle announced Tuesday the afternoon newspaper will cease publication next month.

A special final edition of the Chronicle the city’s afternoon newspaper for more than 105 years will be published July 31. Officials of the family owned Cowles Publishing Co. said the Chronicle would become part of an expanded morning Spokesman-Review.

Publisher W. Stacey Cowles said the decision to cease publication was made because the market for afternoon newspapers is dwindling and readers would be better served by concentrating resources into the morning newspaper.

”We have always said we would continue publishing an afternoon edition as long as there was a viable market for one,” Cowles said. ”Rather than continuing to divide our publishing resources among two daily newspapers, we have decided to create an even better morning newspaper and develop new information and advertising products to serve our readers.”

Following a nationwide trend among afternoon newspapers, the Chronicle’s circulation dropped from about 59,000 to just 19,000 during the past 10 years, Cowles said. The Spokesman-Review’s circulation has risen to 101,000 from about 77,500 in the same period.