BY: FORREST R. CHURCH, PUBLISHER
It was brought to my attention late last week that our print press may have processed for mailing some newspaper copies with low quality printing results, specifically in Section B.
If this is the case and you received one in the mail, please accept my apology.
Very few, if any, weekly newspapers own their own print press, they are massive operations that require around the clock printing to justify the expense of owning one.
The Village Reporter outsources to a large printer in Delphos, Ohio and they typically do a excellent job, printing publications around the State of Ohio.
As with any operation with a lot of moving parts problems can and will arise, which apparently occurred last week for a large portion of our mailed newspapers.
Newspapers are labeled and bundled according to USPS standards at the press thus we do not see those papers before distribution as they are placed in tubs and we drop them off at our Postal Entry Office for mailing.
We are working with the press and reviewing our efforts to see if a better system will prevent future quality control issues from repeating themselves.
This of course is disappointing as print prices have doubled since last year due to inflation and we work tirelessly to try to ensure each page publishes as “crisp” as possible.
Long story short, printing has always been valuable, with our extra payroll time spent on pages and inflation pricing, printing has literally become “all the more” valuable.
We spend on average 300-350 local hours each week to build our newspaper (from top to bottom) here in the Williams / Fulton County area. When all these efforts does not reflect on our mailed print pages, that is deeply concerning.
Last week I personally worked 4 of 5 shifts on Sunday over to Monday to ensure one of our nicest coverage editions of the year was as “perfected” as possible.
In addition to editing, small things like lightening a photo 10%, moving an article over a few mouse clicks, etc. (we call “polishing pages”) is conducted page by page to ensure things are “just right”.
Last week’s edition was 40 pages, so if we spent an average of 30-45 minutes a page “polishing” them, you can do the math on what our weekend efforts looked like before sending the paper to the press for printing.
Despite these efforts if printing quality doesn’t match the preflight efforts, the end result is not what we desire or expect.
We have reprinted coverage concerning these pages inside this edition. If last week’s print edition had no issue when arriving in your mailbox, you may see a few pages of repeat stories inside.
If you received a copy with pages that were unreadable, please again note they are inside this edition.
Please note all subscribers can always view the E-Edition online as part of their subscription, which is the same as the print edition mailed.
Subscribers also have access to our daily news format where stories are published on our website as quickly as they are completed.
Thank you for your time concerning this matter, again please accept our apology as we strive to publish as high quality of local news coverage possible.
As always, “thank you” for supporting local small – family owned business.
Forrest may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
