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The Cleveland Plain Dealer will deliver papers only three times per week, but it will print every day, the paper announced Thursday. The change will come this summer.

The company will also reorganize as the Northeast Ohio Media Group, which will handle "advertising sales and marketing for The Plain Dealer, Cleveland.com and Sun newspapers," the announcement says. "And, Northeast Ohio Media Group will provide content for all print and digital products."

Plain Dealer science writer John Mangels described the changes as "bittersweet" in a phone call with Poynter. "It’s better than what we had expected," he said. In a newsroom meeting announcing the changes, Mangels said, management said planned layoffs would be delayed until late summer.

Plain Dealer staffers launched a campaign this past November they hoped woud ward off a move to three-day-a-week printing, which the paper's owner, Advance, has instituted at its papers in Alabama, New Orleans and Harrisburg, Pa. (more...)

Cleveland.com
U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette decided not to run for re-election this year. One thing he won't miss about his old job? Cleveland.com commenters, he tells Plain Dealer reporter Sabrina Eaton.

"What I won't miss are the 20 people in their pajamas who go on Cleveland.com anonymously and feel that the world is just dying for their snarky, stupid comments," LaTourette said during an interview today.

The comments on the piece, which LaTourette agreed would be "bait," are lively. "There are more than 20 people who posted on this Cleveland.com article alone," one wrote.

Related: Yale professor Stephen L. Carter on anonymous commenters (Bloomberg View) | Anonymous comments can be ‘a frothing, bubbling cauldron of insanity’ (Poynter) | Why we’ll never stop struggling over comment sections (Poynter)

Cleveland.com
Plain Dealer Editor Debra Adams Simmons and publisher Terry Egger published an open letter to readers on Sunday's front page responding to concerns about the paper's future plans. Plain Dealer journalists launched a pre-emptive campaign last week against the possibility the paper would reduce staff and print frequency, like other Advance-owned newspapers.

Students of previous Advance transitions may hear notes in Simmons' and Egger's letter reminiscent of those the company sounded in New Orleans, Harrisburg, Pa., and at Advance's Alabama papers: Change is coming, we will embrace the digital future and the changes involved will not be small.

"We do not have a specific plan, timeline or structure for Cleveland. But we will — very soon," Simmons and Egger write. (more...)

NetNewsCheck
While some news websites have turned to Facebook Comments and required commenters to use real names, The Plain Dealer website Cleveland.com is embracing its anonymous commenters. “I think you miss out on the full extent of the [online] medium if you block out what readers have to say,” Cleveland.com Editor In Chief Denise Polverine told NetNewsCheck. “Some news organizations feel their voice is the final voice on a subject, and that’s not the case at Cleveland.com.” That's not to say the comments are untouched. Moderators remove offensive ones, and on sensitive stories comments may be disabled entirely. A community manager writes a note about commenters when they attain “featured user” status and quotes something they've posted recently. || Related: News websites see the benefits of using Facebook Comments; why people need anonymous identities on the Web. || Earlier: Plain Dealer unmasks judge as anonymous commenter; judge sues and settles with Advance Internet.

Cleveland.com
Last week’s out-of-court settlement of a reader comment lawsuit in Cleveland leaves several questions of newsroom operations and ethics unanswered.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer settled a suit brought by a Cuyahoga County Judge after an editor identified her as … Read more