City: Savannah, GA

Category: Media

Telephone: (912) 236-9511

Address: 1375 Chatham Pkwy.

Description: Savannah’s daily newspaper is the Savannah Morning News. It’s part of Morris Communications, which owns several other Georgia papers (in Athens and Augusta, where the company is headquartered) as well as Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union and a host of other newspapers and publications. Don’t be confused if you hear the paper called the News-Press. Until 1996, the same company put out the Savannah Evening Press, and the combined weekend editions were known as the News-Press. The Press may be several years dead, but habit dies hard in Savannah, and we still use the name from time to time.Recent years have seen an emphasis on modern design and less focus on breaking hard news. Regular readers know where to find the regular features—the automotive section on Saturday, food coverage on Wednesday, a pullout entertainment tabloid called Diversions on Thursday, and lots of special sections on Sunday. Cost is 75 cents for single copies daily ($1.50 Sun) and $18.20 monthly for home delivery. The editorial pages feature a mix of local and nationally syndicated columns, but the real star of these pages is editorial cartoonist Mark Streeter, who takes on local, national, and international topics with razor-sharp points, humor, and humanity.A popular feature is “Vox Populi,” consisting of a selection of anonymous phoned-in comments that are alternately rants and raves, reasoned commentary, whimsical observations, or frightening evidence of social disintegration. Diversions, a tabloid that runs every Thursday, includes listings on everything from what movies are playing in local theaters to concerts, gallery exhibits, and more. A favorable review of a restaurant in Diversions will pack the place for a while. Monday’s edition usually includes a map showing locations of local reported crimes from a couple weeks previously. The Morning News puts a lot of effort into its website, www.savannahnow.com, as well. Included here is a feature portion where people can post their own photos from events. The Closeups are a selection of weekly neighborhood newspapers published as sections in the regular paper (the Islands Closeup, the Intown Closeup, etc.) for subscribers in those areas. The Morning News’s facilities in the western suburbs include a large lecture hall where the paper occasionally hosts public forums and lectures.