Times to take free tbt* back to weekly status

One day after the announcement that alt-weekly Creative Loafing had been sold, and its staff drastically reduced, the Tampa Bay Times says it’s tightening the reins on its own freebie, the news-and-entertainment tabloid tbt*.

Since 2006, tbt* has been published daily, and delivered to newsstands and offices. The publication began as a weekly in 2004.

Paul Tash, the CEO and chairman of Times Publishing Co., wrote in March that the rising cost of newsprint imported from Canada – a government-imposed tariff resulting in a 30 percent cost increase for his company – was a “kick in the teeth” that would trickle down, in some ways, to the readers.

In a piece by editor Ellen B. Clarke released Tuesday, the Times declared that the daily tbt* will be the first casualty of the tariffs.

Beginning June 1, it will return to a weekly product, published on Thursdays.

“The (still free) weekly tbt* will have interesting new content, like an expanded focus on LGBTQ issues and a sports planner and commentary,” Clarke wrote.