SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The North East Independent and South County Independent are being rebranded into a single newspaper, The Independent, the managing editor announced in a Web post on Thursday.
Liz Boardman, managing editor, said the change will take effect on Oct. 1.
She said moving to one paper will better serve readers and advertisers by offering a “bigger, more robust paper serving our three active, engaged and civic-minded communities of Narragansett, North Kingstown and South Kingstown.”
Changes include expanded sections with pages dedicated to each town, more news and photographs of local people and events, as well as additional community listings and legal advertising for South Kingstown and North Kingstown.
The North East Independent covers East Greenwich and North Kingstown, while the South County Independent focuses on Narragansett and South Kingstown.
“Since the founding of North East Independent 17 years ago, we have had limited market penetration in East Greenwich, and believe this change will better deploy our resources so that we can remain the award-winning, go-to, investigative newspaper our readers and advertisers deserve,” Boardman wrote.
She said that distributions will not change, and the website, independentri.com, also will not change, as it has been a combined site for three years. A single Facebook page will be created, however.
“We hope you will have patience with us as we make this transition,” she wrote.
