Building on success in the Grove City area and the results of four trial runs this year, the weekly newspaper Allied News will publish two editions a week starting in January.

One will be published on Wednesdays -- the traditional day of publication -- and the other on Saturdays.

"This move gives us a chance to be more timely with news," said Allied News Editor Brad Isles. "Sometimes, such as with the election, meetings and athletic events, stories were more than a week old. That won't be an issue now."

Allied News, The Herald and the weekly Hubbard Press are sister publications owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Birmingham, Ala.

Allied General Manager Jim Galantis noted the successful trial run of Saturday issues throughout 2003, the growth of the Grove City area, and the success of Allied News as a major provider of news and advertising in that area as reasons for the move to the twice-weekly format.

"To expand the publication frequency of Allied News to better serve our market is a strategy we had been planning for some time," Galantis said. "We published four Saturday editions during the year with an overwhelming demand from our readers. Results were greater than we expected, so we feel publishing twice a week will better serve those loyal readers."

Some editorial changes will be made, diverting some content to Saturday from Wednesday. Obituaries and the Editorial page will run both days.

"This move gives us the chance to increase our community coverage, a standard Allied has lived up to for more than a century," Isles said.

Sports coverage will also have a greater role in the Saturday issue considering the number of events occurring between Tuesday and Friday night.

"As with news content, sports scores, game stories and photographs will have greater timeliness and every effort will be made to include Friday's games in the Saturday issue," Isles said.

Starting in January, subscribers can have the Saturday edition delivered to their home. To add Saturday home delivery or to start a new subscription call the Allied News circulation department at 724-458-5010. Both Wednesday and Saturday editions will be available at existing newspaper dealers and vending machines.