Changes coming to classified section of Marion, West Frankfort and Benton newspapers

Beginning today, readers of the Benton Evening News, The Daily American (West Frankfort) and The Daily Republican (Marion) will note the classified section has moved to the front of the second section of the newspaper. This is one of a number of improvements coming this summer / fall to this section.


Also effective today, any ad called into any of those three newspapers will appear in all three, as well as the Web sites affiliated with each newspaper. The contents will also appear in two weeklies - The Progress (Christopher) and Free Press (West Frankfort) - and will be expanded to the weekly This Week (Marion) by year-end.


The goal is to offer classified advertisers a greater reach of local adults. Advertisers can also purchase additional reach into other regional newspapers such as Harrisburg.


In conjunction with this change, readers should notice a higher local story count in the sports section. The goal is to provide readers more coverage from Williamson and Franklin counties. In the past, sports articles that appeared in one of the three newspapers often wouldn't make it into one or both of the other two. Now local sports originating from those two counties will appear in all three editions.


More changes to the classified section will be announced in the coming weeks.