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Tribune Chronicle acquires rights to Vindicator name

Will print edition for Mahoning County starting Sept. 1

WARREN — The Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator have reached an agreement so current readers of The Vindicator will continue to receive a daily newspaper. A new Vindicator edition of the Tribune Chronicle will be launched Sept. 1 and delivered to all The Vindicator’s subscribers.

Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator, announced Friday that the Tribune Chronicle will acquire rights to The Vindicator name, its list of subscribers and the Vindy.com internet domain.

The agreement clears the way for the Tribune Chronicle to produce an edition under the name of The Vindicator. The Tribune Chronicle will provide a newspaper for the remainder of the unexpired term of all subscribers of The Vindicator. Readers of The Vindicator will then have the option to renew their subscriptions.

The owners of The Vindicator announced July 5 the newspaper, which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, would cease publication Aug. 31. The Tribune Chronicle announced July 16 that it would attempt to fill the void left by the closure of The Vindicator by publishing a Mahoning County edition beginning Sept. 1.

“We have always felt strongly about the need to have a local newspaper. The agreement announced today provides The Vindicator’s subscribers with continued delivery of a daily print newspaper focused on their communities, Mahoning County and the Valley,” Brown said. “We are very happy to be able to provide our readers with a daily print newspaper from a family-owned company. The Nutting family and Ogden Newspapers have been in the publishing business since 1890.”

“We are extremely pleased and honored to be able to preserve the long-respected name of the newspaper that has served this region for a century-and-a-half,” said Charles Jarvis, publisher of the Tribune Chronicle. “We look forward to delivering a newspaper to the homes of all current subscribers of The Vindicator. The new edition also will be available at even more stores and newspaper racks in Mahoning County.”

Jarvis said the Tribune Chronicle will publish two editions. The current subscribers of the Tribune Chronicle will see little change in their newspaper.

The Vindicator subscribers will receive an edition with content that more directly relates to Mahoning County and the Mahoning Valley region. Obituaries that would have been published only in The Vindicator will appear only in the new Vindicator edition.

“Immediately upon The Vindicator’s announcing it would cease publication, this community raised up to express its concern about its possible loss of access to a newspaper,” Jarvis said. “Many realized that a newspaper journalizes the everyday happenings of its city and region and losing that would be a tremendous loss.

“Readers want their neighborhood news, and — more than ever — today’s readers want the news of the region. People are driving a bit further for jobs, and families have spread out. We’re looking forward to serving the region with the hard news, community news, entertainment news and the best local sports coverage,” Jarvis said.

Since the announcement of the closure of The Vindicator, the Tribune Chronicle has been planning increased coverage of Mahoning County and has added considerable resources to get that done. The Vindicator edition will be the area’s best source for Mahoning Valley news and will offer a strong advertising medium to support the businesses that drive the region’s economy. Advertisers will have the option to place ads in either or both editions.

Many of The Vindicator’s features, including all of the daily comics and most of the Sunday comics, will be included in The Vindicator edition.

The Tri-County Funeral Directors’ Association members who have traditionally published obituaries in The Vindicator are planning to use The Vindicator edition of the Tribune Chronicle for their obituary tributes. Local and state governmental agencies have indicated they will use The Vindicator edition to publish their legal advertisements.

Together the Trumbull and the Mahoning editions of the Tribune Chronicle will provide advertisers with a combined reach of more than 50,000 households.

“We are committed to publishing a newspaper for Mahoning County that will give the community a strong voice,” Jarvis said. “While we could never fully replace the great work done by The Vindicator’s publisher, management and staff, we believe we will produce a really good newspaper — one the community can be proud of.”

The Tribune Chronicle plans to contract with as many current Vindicator carriers as possible in order to provide a seamless transition on Sept. 1.

Jarvis stressed this whole process is on a very fast track and the Sept. 1 transition may not be as smooth as hoped.

“If there are some missed deliveries in the first few days, we hope the subscribers will let us know and give us the opportunity to fix the problems,” he said. “We have always been committed to excellent customer service.”

Hundreds of people have already reached out to the Tribune Chronicle to subscribe to the announced Mahoning County edition. If those who have subscribed are current Vindicator subscribers, the Tribune Chronicle will extend the expiration date of subscriptions.

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