Cutting the number of days on which you publish could make your newspaper more valuable.

That's the "new reality" of newsmedia, according to mergers and acquisitions specialist Sara April.

The vice president of New Mexico firm of Dirks, Van Essen, Murray & April, April says she is frequently asked whether reducing print frequency would reduce the value of a company. "The short answer is no, and there is a possibility that such a move would increase the value of your company," she says.

While higher multiples of revenue and cash-flow for dailies was the norm in the 1980s and 1990s, the value calculation has since evolved.

"As consistent year-over-year revenue gains became less predictable, and the new reality set in that revenues were likely to retract rather than grow, the emphasis was placed almost entirely on stable cash flows," she says. "If revenues were not going to grow, buyers wanted a property in which they could increase cash flow through expense reductions."

This was the point at which daily newspaper publishers started to buy weeklies in adjacent markets in earnest, in some cases deciding there was greater value in buying a group of non-dailies at a lower multiple of cash flow than there was to buy a daily at a higher multiple.

Daily newspapers in the 1980s and 1990s were more popular with buyers because of a focus on revenue, and its indication of market growth and prospects. Daily papers gained national advertising that might not be available to weekly newspapers, were more popular with buyers, and - because of better amortisation of fixed costs - commonly made profits ten per cent higher than non-dailies.

Then, as revenue of publishing businesses declined, she says certain days of the week became unprofitable, and cutting them became a logical place to look for savings. April (pictured) says more than 500 daily newspapers have cut publication days in the last ten years, and the current economic downturn will lead to "substantially more" doing the same.

She says the focus on cash flow is more intense today than it has ever been. "That's why, in our opinion, if a newspaper company is losing money on certain days of the week, management should seriously consider discontinuing printing and delivering a paper on those days, a move that will immediately increase the cash flow of the operation," she says.