Three newspapers merge in Butler County

The Augusta Gazette, El Dorado Times and Andover American have merged into one newspaper to serve the Butler County area.

The new newspaper, which printed its first edition on Tuesday, is the Butler County Times-Gazette. It was a bittersweet decision for Kent Bush, publisher.

"Just about 30 months ago, GateHouse Media allowed us to create a weekly newspaper in Andover to accompany those we already had in Augusta and El Dorado," Bush said.

"But with three small newspapers come many challenges. Printing three smaller runs is much more expensive than printing one larger run. On print days, we had three editors all doing the exact same job in three locations. It was inefficient …"

Bush said the newly merged newspaper "will allow us to serve our readers and advertisers better."

To read about the first edition, go here:

http://www.butlercountytimesgazette.com/article/20131105/OPINION/131109763/1007/OPINION

To read a history of the newspapers, go here: http://www.butlercountytimesgazette.com/article/20131101/NEWS/131109932