The Chronicle has long used the slogan “Northern California’s largest circulation newspaper,” but you won’t be able to buy a copy of the paper outside the Bay Area after Monday. A memo to independent distributors who paper said the change was “due to the high cost of delivery,” according to a report in The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. The Tribune quoted one distributor as saying the Chron will no longer be delivered south of Gilroy. Another distributor say that he used to deliver 1,000 Sunday Chronicles in San Luis Obispo. Now the number is down to 225. Readers outside the Bay Area who still want the Chronicle will be invited to subscribe to the e-edition.

For what it’s worth, Dean Singleton’s Denver Post announced Thursday that it was eliminating delivery of its weekday editions to outlying parts of Colorado. Like the Chronicle, the Denver Post promoted itself as being a regional newspaper. Now it is focusing on just the Denver metro area.