The daily Tracy Press has dropped its Monday edition and will print just five days a week instead of six, Tuesday through Saturday, due to what the paper described as “financial challenges.” The family-owned, 9,800-circulation paper laid off about a dozen employees a month ago, including some in the newsroom, and is looking at other cost-cutting measures, according to publisher Bob Matthews. The paper is locked in a newspaper war with Dean Singleton’s Tri-Valley Hearld and Dow Jones’ Stockton Record. In June, it switched from paid circulation to free delivery to local homes. Matthews told the California Newspaper Publishers Association, “Tuesdays through Saturdays reflect our strongest news and strongest advertising days — which pay the bills.” The Tracy Press will continue to publish breaking news on its web site seven days a week and will publish a special online edition on Mondays. Matthews also called an end to the upside-down back-page Sports section experiment the newspaper began last year.