On Jan. 30, the Chicago Tribune ended a 25-year deal with the local Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.

In the prior business arrangement, the Tribune paid the News-Gazette to print and distribute its newspaper throughout the Champaign-Urbana area.

The Tribune will now print all of its newspapers in Chicago and transport them to the area.

“We regret the loss of any customer,” says John Foreman, publisher of the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette. “But we understand the realities of the business and why the Tribune has to cut back.”

With many people turning to the Internet as their media source, newspaper publications have been losing subscribers and publishers have been trying to determine alternate ways of disseminating information.

“(Ending this deal) provides cost savings for our company,” said Tony Hunter, director of publishing at the Chicago Tribune. “We are sharpening our focus on the primary distribution area of the newspaper.”

The Chicago Tribune also printed through Capital Newspapers in Madison, Wis., but plans on ending both remote-site printing agreements.

“With the Internet and how people are consuming information we can serve some of the outlying areas with the Web-based product as well,” Hunter said.

The News-Gazette will have to cope with the loss of a major printing deal along with the loss of readers experienced by many newspaper publications.

“We still do printing for The Daily Illini, The Rantoul Press, The Leader (Ogden, Ill.), The Mahomet Citizen and several other local publications,” Foreman said.

In regards to the new system of personal delivery of the Tribune, Hunter stated that the paper is “working on the logistics to make sure we are getting the papers in a timely basis to the communities we serve. Our goal is not to impact service.”