Southern Indiana Papers Merge

Two newspapers that serve southern Indiana are merging.The Jeffersonville Evening News and the New Albany Tribune will become the News and Tribune.The two papers are owned by the same company. They've also shared a website and some staff members for years. Starting March 1st, the papers will have the same editorial and advertising staff, and only one paper will be published."We share so many things to begin with," says Evening News editor Shea VanHoy. "We cover a lot of the same issues. A sewer rate hike in Jeffersonville is followed a year later by a sewer rate hike in New Albany. It gives you perspective."VanHoy will edit the new paper. He says there will be some redundancies in the staff, but he's not sure how many employees will be laid off."We're still kind of looking like that, but obviously there are some duplications. Some of their entities might work out into different positions," he says.VanHoy says the new paper will eventually be called the Southern Indiana News And Tribune. Both current papers will maintain their separate offices, but VanHoy says the staffs will work together to cover more regional news.