Dear readers,
It has been a busy couple of weeks with the Thanksgiving holiday, early deadlines, and a few papers not getting to you on time – as you expect them to each and every week. I’d like to extend my deepest apologies and thank you for your patience as we worked through press staff shortages and equipment breakdowns.
When the press notified us last week that their printing was behind schedule, we made a quick decision to insert the Nov. 17 edition into the Nov. 24 paper to ensure you got both editions.
Please understand this delay was not due to any lack of dedication that we have to our community or our newspaper. My staff and I are working diligently to make sure all of our deadlines are met. We work persistently each week so that our news, advertisements, obituaries, and crossword puzzles are carefully edited, designed, and arranged into every paper.
Once the layout of our paper is completed and sent to the press, the printing process is out of our control. Furthermore, the timeline of printing also affects the distribution and delivery via the U.S. Postal Service and our store delivery drivers.
Although our news is well read on our website and our Facebook page, our print paper is still our priority for our readers and advertisers, including the towns we serve as paper of record. In addition, not every person has reliable access to the internet, and many rely on us for their news. Obituary services, advertisers’ promotions, and local events are often time sensitive, and we value getting that information to our readers in a timely manner.
Our paper should be reaching you on time this week, and we are working to make sure this issue does not continue. So thank you again for continuing to support our community newspaper, and for being patient during a difficult time.
Sincerely,
Shawntae Webb
Publisher
The Vermont Journal & The Shopper
An excerpt of an editorial written and printed by Rutland Herald:
Gathering advertising and news is only a piece of the challenge that we face with each issue. There is a team that produces those ads, lays out the pages, and ships those pages to a printing press. There is a team at the printer that works well into the night to make sure the thousands of copies of this newspaper (and all of their inserts) get back to the communities we serve. Very early in the morning, a small army of motor carriers wait for those bundled newspapers to arrive in their respective markets. Then, they are transferred, divvied up, and those drivers, all independent contractors, take to the roads to deliver that day’s edition.
Last month, after a series of late deliveries and printing issues with Upper Valley Press, our printer in North Haverhill, New Hampshire, we were informed by the printer that the labor shortage is making it impossible for them to keep up with their workload. UVP not only prints The Times Argus and Rutland Herald, as well as the Claremont Eagle Times and The Vermont Journal & The Shopper (all publications owned by Sample News Group), it prints other weeklies from around the region, as well as many of those direct marketing inserts you get in the mail.
But like us, if UVP falls behind on its print jobs, something gets pushed. Lately, because we are at the end of the line, it has been us. That has meant our newspapers have not been getting into the hands of our motor route carriers on time, and it has meant we have had to find alternate locations to print some of our products. It has also meant certain inserts have not been in the papers, or delayed beyond their usefulness, which is unacceptable to us.
This will probably not come as a surprise: There are not a lot of print facilities in Vermont willing or able to work all night. In fact, very few Vermont newspapers (weekly or daily) own and maintain their own presses. It has been more cost-effective to use larger commercial press facilities that have state-of-the-art equipment and the staff to operate and maintain them – until there aren’t enough people to operate and maintain them.
As a result, we have been in ongoing talks with printers all around New England and upstate New York. It has been an epic effort to quilt together a schedule that allows for adequate print windows, hired transportation, and meeting deadlines that do not compromise our quality reporting.
So, we thank you for your patience. And know that these little papers are doing amazing work despite a pandemic and the challenges it places on our families, as well. In fact, we are producing more products than ever, with both our loyal and new advertisers. We are seeing more people reading us in print and online. We are confident that we have weathered the storm that has taken so many community newspapers. But we do face a formidable challenge in finding a new printer.
Be assured that if your newspaper is late, you’re probably not alone. We are taking all of the steps necessary to ensure we are — like a good friend — here to greet you every day that we publish.
Thank you for reading us, and standing by us, today and always.