In May, we received a number of calls and emails from our readers asking, “Where’s my paper?”
The short answer to the question is, we really don’t know where some of those papers went.
It’s growing difficult to find places with printing presses, as more and more people turn to Facebook or similar sources for their “news.”
The Four Corners Free Press is now printed in New Mexico and shipped to us via FedEx. In May, however, our papers wound up in a warehouse in Phoenix, Ariz., for some reason still unknown, and they languished there.
Eventually we did get a whole new press run sent to us by the printer, and we also got the Phoenix papers at last, so we had a generous supply of copies of last month’s edition.
But the problems didn’t end there.
Every month, we hustle around and mail our papers to our subscribers as soon as we get them. Our subscribers are our top priority. Normally the local subscribers receive their copies the day after they’re mailed. The copies that go out of the area have to first go to Albuquerque and they take longer to arrive, but usually show up within a week.
But last month some subscribers, even in the local area, didn’t get their Free Presses for quite some time. Again, we don’t know why. And the out-of-town papers seem to have been delivered even more slowly. A subscriber in Alabama said he got his paper on June 1. To this day, there are some of our subscribers who may still be missing their May issues of the Four Corners Free Press.
You may be wondering why we don’t just put everything online and forget the printing. That’s always a possibility, but a lot of our readers prefer a hand-held, print edition. Also, we don’t have the resources right now to develop a snazzy website complete with electronic ads and a pay wall; our website is provided to us through the kindness of Pixel Right. (And, by the way, our website is a great archive of news stories, with an excellent search feature.)
None of us are web or computer experts – we’re reporters, writers, editors and/or ad designers, that’s it.
If you didn’t get your May paper (or if you don’t get this month’s), let us know and we’ll send you one first-class. You can call and leave a message at our office, 970-565-4422. We aren’t in the office all the time, but we check messages regularly.
We’re sorry about the problems that happened in May, and we hope all will go well this month. Thanks for your support.
