Following our March 19 announcement that the Daily Astorian will become The Astorian, with a three-days a week, mail delivered publishing schedule as of May 7, I heard from readers with questions about the change. I thought I’d share some of those questions, and my answers, with you.

Why the change?

It’s important to make business changes that will enable us to continue to serve Clatsop County — now and in the future. Our newspaper delivery costs continue to go up, and it makes sense to partner with the postal service for delivery — they are in the professional delivery business and do it everyday. Although we will publish three days a week instead of five, our coverage will remain the same, and the three issues each week will contain all of the local news that we’re now publishing in five.

Is the newspaper failing?

No, our business is changing. Just like retailers and bankers who are doing more online business, we’re delivering news to more people online than in print and we’re adjusting our business to that shift. We actually just invested in a new tower on our press to be able to print more pages in a section in color because we believe print will be around for a long time.

Will the subscription rate will change, too? At $11.25 a month, you will be getting the same local news in print you’ve been receiving in five days in three — plus extra sections of the paper you aren’t getting now, like American Profile and Spry, and starting in June more manufacturer coupons. The subscription also include unlimited access to the e-edition and dailyastorian.com website news, recently revamped with more video and multimedia.

Although we haven’t raised rates in years, we can keep our subscription rates the same because of savings in delivery costs. The rate on the newsstand will be $1.50, reflecting bigger value in bigger issues.

I get my mail at a post office box. What if I want to change to just online subscription?

We have an online only subscription that takes into account the savings in delivery, newsprint and ink. For $8.00 a month, you can get unlimited access to the website, e-edition and soon a breaking news app for mobile devices.

Why Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday? Tuesday’s newspaper will include two sections with In One Ear, grocery inserts, TV Schedule and weekend sports results. Thursday will have Coast Weekend, and two sections, including the community news section. Saturday’s edition is our weekend package, with Weekend Break, American Profile/Spry, national grocery coupons and weekend sales plus prep sports results in football and basketball seasons. For Seaside residents, they’ll also receive the Seaside Signal weekly on Saturday.

What’s happening to the comics page? What about the crossword puzzles and horoscopes?

We’ll have expanded features, comics and puzzles in the B section of every edition. You won’t miss any horoscopes, TV or weather on the off print days.

What about my carrier?

Although it makes the most sense for our business to move the print delivery to mail, it’s also the hardest part of the change. We will be celebrating our past and current carriers on the last day of carrier delivery, May 3 at 11:30 a.m. with a farewell barbecue at our office, and offering them additional incentives to deliver during the last month of service.

Other questions or suggestions? Please let me know. kborgen@dailyastorian.com 503-325-4955