Inky Fingers

There is a plethora of things going on in the newspaper world, one being the rising cost of postage.The USPS is considering a raise in all postage, including a raise in first-class stamps, up two cents, from 66 cents to 68 cents each.This also, however, means a proposed raise in rates for newspapers. For you readers that are not aware of how periodicals run, this is a typical week for us: We measure the advertising versus copy in each issue, factor in the inches of inserts in each paper and then we cut a check to the post office for doing PO boxes, shipping the papers out all over the United States. Depending on the number of pages in the paper and how much advertising is in it will determine how much we pay a week. Typically, it is between $400-$500 a week we pay for postage.The proposed rate hike for newspapers is four times the raise of other users of mail, around a seven percent increase, according to the National Newspaper Association.In many businesses, you simply pass the increase on to the customer. However, this is the local newspaper, our business model is vastly different than many other businesses. We simply, in good conscience, cannot do that to our readers.Yes, there will be an increase in subs next year, but not seven percent. I will get creative on how to get costs covered, which is a balancing act every publisher does every single day across the nation.Solutions include going all digital. To that, I say no. Yes, digital gives us the ability to reduce costs by not having postage, but studies reaffirm, people trust the news more if it is in black and white, on paper, ink and newsprint.We will continue to work with the USPS on a national level and I think we have good service here locally. We try to help out by sorting a few things and do our own Kansas route to help our readers to the south.Yes, we have a digital product. Every week the Wednesday edition is released Tuesday afternoon, a full day ahead of the print, and the Friday edition is a totally new paper with expanded court reports, a recipe page, an ag page, sports, two opinion pages, comics/cartoons and more.Everything is accessible from phones, home computers, etc., however, not everyone has access to those forms of communication. With that, we will continue to be there for our print readers.I worked for Master Publisher Lee Warneke many years ago in Plainview, Nebraska.One night he sat at his desk and finished reading the paper for the week after it hit newsstands. Staring down retirement, he neatly folded the latest edition of his paper up like he had done for decades and looked at his hands.“You know what, once you get that ink on your hands, it stays on you forever,” he said.I think that goes for readers as well as old pressmen.It gets in your blood, this newspaper thing. People sit and read the paper, go to the coffee shop and talk about the latest happenings and clip out important items to be saved for later.We will keep moving forward with the paper, print and digital. Any way you want to read it, tell us and we will try to improve the process.

Rex Lichtenberger

11.8.23

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