Effective with our Jan. 2 issue, the Sherburne County Citizen and Clearwater Tribune will become one newspaper. Advertising and reporting services provided by both papers will be combined into a publication, the Citizen-Tribune, to serve the Becker, Clear Lake, East St. Cloud, Palmer and Santiago communities in Sherburne County and Clearwater and portions of Annandale, Maple Lake and South Haven in Wright and Stearns counties.

 

The publication, which will average about 24 pages weekly, will be published Friday afternoons and distributed Saturdays. Wrapup distribution should be no later than Sunday noon.

 

The newspaper will have about 11,250 distribution. The Citizen will be withdrawn from the Big Lake distribution area.

 

(The West Sherburne Tribune, officed in Big Lake, will continue to serve the Big Lake and Monticello areas. With its distribution about 11,300, the two papers will have about 22,500 distribution, which will provide complete coverage of all the above communities. That paper will remain a Saturday publication.)

 

Combining the two newspapers will give them the opportunity to become a more full-service medium to the Clearwater area.

 

Clearwater area news and advertising will be combined with that of the Sherburne County area, along with expanded coverage of Clearview School, which serves Clear Lake and Clearwater families.

 

The new publication will feature a combined church page, classified advertising and legal advertising sections to serve both areas.

 

There will be expanded coverage of Clearwater sports and organizations and to Lynden Twp.

 

All regular beats of the Citizen area will be continued.

 

There will be a changeover of some editorial staffers.

 

Bill Morgan of the Citizen staff will begin coverage of Santiago and Palmer townships and Becker Schools, in addition to his current duties.

 

Newcomer to the staff, Penny Leuthard of Clearwater, will be succeeding the near-retired David Hannula. She will cover Clearview Schools, Clear Lake city and township and Haven Twp. in addition to Clearwater reporting.

 

Ken Francis, longtime Clearwater staff writer, will retain his coverage.

 

(Hannula, essentially retired, will return to cover special Becker Schools events, such as stage productions and robotics.) 

 

Advertising services in the Citizen-Tribune area will be provided by Mary Nehring, Susan Nagorski, Dick Behm and Sue Emberland.

 

 Residents can continue to contact the newspaper through either of their current offices. The Citizen, at Becker, has a telephone number of 763-261-5880 (1-800-261-7767     toll free. Its news email, legals and classfied and display advertising email addresses will remain the same. Its web site will remain the same at citizennewspaper.com.

 

The Tribune will retain its phone number, 320-558-2037 and email addresses. Its website will remain the same at clearwatertribune.net.

 

All addresses and phone numbers will be prominently displayed in our Jan. 2 issue.