Lancaster Newspapers announced a series of changes Monday to strengthen its focus on delivering local news and information to Lancaster County residents.

In the first step of this effort, the company named Ernest Schreiber as executive editor, overseeing its news-gathering operation seven days a week.

Schreiber, who came out of retirement to take the newly created position, will lead a combination of the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era and Sunday News staffs.

Effective immediately, the 75 reporters, editors and photographers will operate as a single newsroom, not two.

Schreiber said the new organization will increase the quantity and depth of its local coverage to solidify its position as the leading source of news and information about the county through its print and digital products.

"More than ever, local people need credible news and information about their community," he said.

"They can get national, state and world news in countless places — radio, TV, websites, phones and tablets. They can get opinion on any issue from any ideological preference at all those same places.

"What local residents cannot get anywhere else — what this newsroom and only this newsroom can give them — is hard news, interesting features and mountains of information about their neighborhoods, their community, their county," Schreiber said.

The company will improve its responsiveness to readers as well, he pledged.

For instance, Lancaster Newspapers will bring a television guide back to the Sunday News as soon as possible.

In addition, the company will place a new emphasis on making all of its products easier for readers to use.

The changes come as Lancaster Newspapers is studying its entire corporation, with the help of an industry expert, in a sweeping effort to improve its products and services.

The initiative is being led by Robert M. Krasne, vice chairman of the board and interim chief executive officer. Krasne said that the newsroom is the first department to be revamped.

The merged newsroom will provide content every day for the print product and all of Lancaster Newspapers' digital platforms — its LancasterOnline website, smartphone apps, tablets and social media.

Though the two newsrooms have merged, the newspapers still will carry the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era name Monday through Saturday and the Sunday News name on Sundays.

The only distinction between the papers will be the names and the continuation of separate editorial page editors.

According to Schreiber, the combined newsroom — which will have the same number of journalists as the two newsrooms had — will:

• Put a greater priority on covering the county's suburban and rural areas, local education and local minorities.

• Increase the amount of interactive content.

• Put a renewed emphasis on balanced, objective coverage.

• Resume publication of at least two editions daily — a city edition that focuses on city news and a county edition that focuses on county, suburban and rural news.

Schreiber had retired as editor of the Lancaster New Era in June 2011 after 37 years with Lancaster Newspapers.

The Manheim Township High School graduate had joined the Lancaster New Era in 1974 and won numerous honors for his investigative reporting.

He became the paper's staff editor in 1986 and editor in 2000.

Schreiber also became a leader in the industry, serving as president and director of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors. He is treasurer of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition.

In his service with PSNE, he helped coordinate its successful campaign to reform the state's Open Records Law in 2008.

Schreiber, of Lancaster, holds a bachelor's degree from Millersville University and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

The newsroom changes come as Lancaster Newspapers conducts a national search for a new chief executive officer.

Krasne, the interim CEO, is an attorney and expert on corporate governance who moved to Lancaster in 2008, after a successful career in Washington, D.C.

He is married to Hale Ansberry Krasne, a granddaughter of the late James Hale Steinman, a publisher and owner of Lancaster Newspapers. She also is a niece of Beverly R. Steinman, chairman of the board of Lancaster Newspapers.

Krasne was a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP, one of Washington's most prominent law firms. He handled criminal, civil and administrative litigation and oversaw internal investigations of corporations and banks.

He also taught corporate governance in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University for eight years and was a corporate consultant.

Since moving to Lancaster, Krasne has been elected a trustee of the Lancaster Farmland Trust and a trustee of the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.

He fills the position created by the retirement in August of Harold E. "Chip" Miller, who had been president and chief executive officer of Lancaster Newspapers since 2004.

tmekeel@lnpnews.com