I’m writing to announce the last of what have been some dramatic changes to LEO Weekly.

In the coming weeks you’ll notice a few more tweaks to the general design and layout, including a revamped City Strobe section, which will match the new look.

We will also eliminate listings from the print edition of LEO Weekly. This will begin with our March 18 issue.

While LEO has always boasted a painfully small staff for the amount of content we produce every day (big thanks here to our dedicated freelancers), we simply don’t have the resources — in people-power or page count — to continue producing Plugged In and our A+E listings. It’s an immense and thankless job, and as we’ve watched the Gannett properties here replace much of their culture reporting, criticism and analysis with pages of events listings and a mammoth web presence, we’ve realized that instead of trying to compete, we should fill the gaps. That seems like a better service to readers.

We’re expanding our Music and A+E sections to include even more locally produced writing and criticism. We’ll be previewing more shows, reviewing more theater productions, profiling local artists, and so forth.

We’re also expanding our Staffpicks section, in which we canvass the thousands of listings we receive every week (keep sending them to [email protected] so we can keep writing about you) and choose what’s particularly interesting or engaging.

Our real value to you, we believe, is our judgment and expertise on matters of arts and culture. We’re excited to offer even more of that.

As of Wednesday, March 18, we will launch a blog at leoweekly.com to list daily cultural happenings we find worthwhile. As well, you may pay to be listed in a special weekly advertising section meant to highlight the arts and other organizations to whom we’ve given free publicity for more than 18 years, and who still find our listings valuable (contact Jonathon Bartley at [email protected] or 895-9770 ext. 212 for info).

While it has been an immense pleasure to offer a free public service for so many years, times are indeed changing, and the print economy is tighter now than it has ever been. We appreciate your understanding. —Stephen George