By: Forrest R. Church, Publisher
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. In talking with readers from around Northwest Ohio, it’s clear we have a “mixed bag” when it comes to holiday celebrations. Some enjoy large family gatherings, while others find this time of year difficult as they miss loved ones no longer with us. Still, some choose to skip the holidays altogether for religious or belief purposes, which can be challenging when surrounded by those who do celebrate.
We kicked off our celebrations in Hamilton on Christmas Eve, followed by a family gathering on Christmas morning in Pioneer. The festivities continued into the afternoon and evening with my wife’s family at our house. Unfortunately, by Christmas night, I fell ill, and soon after, our little girl joined me. It turned into a family affair of illness, leading us to cancel an annual Christmas gathering with my cousins and a short trip to Nashville over New Year’s to celebrate with out-of-town family. I read on social media that a lot of people fell ill with this sickness. Despite the unexpected and disappointing turn, the holiday was still memorable.
Staying in Ohio during our rare slowdown—just normal 8-hour shifts, which feel like a day off around here—allowed me to tackle a handful of tasks I can never seem to get to at the office and home, which felt nice. I believe “traction equals satisfaction,” as there is nothing more discouraging than going to bed at the end of a long day and feeling like less was accomplished than when you started. Many of these projects had been sitting idle for a long time.
slowdown was hanging our large oversized maps of Williams and Fulton Counties
showing all towns townships and details on our wall our newspaper coverage areas
Vinyl lettering will be added later
NEWSPAPER QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
–We received several notes from readers who missed last week’s newspaper. As a reminder, our first edition of the year is this one (I discussed this in my last column and placed a note on the front page of our last edition). Every four years, there are 53 Wednesdays, but we charge for 52 editions per year. Anyone familiar with my column over the years knows that we make little to no profit from subscriptions when there are 4-5 sections, as we sell papers around our costs for printing, mailing, delivery, etc. You can do the math on what it would take to offer a free newspaper edition to our entire circulation around the country.
The first week of January is typically a time for local organizations to prepare for the new year (light meetings), so although we would have preferred to take this off week during the summer to give our team some much-needed downtime during warmer temps, we decided it was best to go with the first week of January. I do not look at all the messages we receive on “Where’s my newspaper” as a negative; rather, it pleases me to know readers faithfully wait each week for their copy to arrive in the mail and miss it when we have a rare no edition week.
–A great question came up last week, one that we hear occasionally, so I thought I’d share the answer here. “I am a new subscriber and have received both the hard copy and one via email. How can I download the email version to my computer?”
Answer: Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, due to past abuse, we only allow online viewing of the E-Edition (no download). This decision came after several readers downloaded the newspaper as a PDF and forwarded it to hundreds on their contact lists, one of whom accidentally included my personal email in the process (other people notified me directly of the practice as they thought it was wrong). To protect our product and prevent digital abuse, we have restricted the edition to online viewing only, which can be viewed full screen on any smartphone, tablet, or computer. Of course, the traditional print copy is mailed every Tuesday/Wednesday.
Over a decade ago, I wrote about an incident involving a school athletic director who shared the newspaper with a note saying, “So you do not have to buy a newspaper,” forwarding it to everyone in the school and several other athletic directors. The forwarded email was not BCC’d, so I could see all the addresses. That was an interesting week, involving conversations with the individual and school leadership (who are no longer employed at the school). That was just one instance.
I believe that almost all our readers would handle such matters with integrity. I was frankly shocked to have conversations with those who did this in the past, questioning if they thought it was okay to open the back door of a movie theatre or allow everyone in the family to eat off a single buffet purchase? I suppose the temptation to share with the masses can be strong.
Like most things in life, you can look at this from several angles. Even though this is an issue we had to address, knowing so many wanted to read the newspaper is a positive. Now just stop trying to steal it, LOL (sort of).
LOOKING AHEAD
We have big plans for The Village Reporter in 2025, and I know this may seem like a tease. We still hope to move forward with these plans, but as I’ve mentioned in past columns, we were hit hard by inflation last year. I won’t get into too many specifics, but six postage increases in recent years, skyrocketing printing prices due to tariffs on incoming paper, and significant surcharges on plates (how color is applied to each page) at the print press have consumed all of last year’s profits.
Essentially, the same level of publication that was profitable the year before was simply wiped out—not because we did more or less, but due to inflation. It’s the first thing I think of when I get to work and often wakes me up at night, as there is no easy way around it. We are likely the only entity in your circle that has not raised rates to offset these losses (unlike Netflix, utilities, grocery prices, etc.). I’m sure you received countless notices in 2024, as I did, about everything increasing in cost to offset inflation. Anybody look at their property taxes yet? It just never ends.
As I mentioned in my recent column, I know many of our readers are on a fixed income, and I am doing everything humanly possible not to raise rates, but we may need to if things don’t change quickly. I do not believe our readers want us to cut back to offset these financial difficulties; I believe they would be thrilled to see us increase our news coverage significantly and perhaps even the number of editions. But unlike the government, I can’t print money to cover these expenses. I didn’t invent math; I just follow it, noting I was an “average at best” student. LOL
So, wish us well as we forge ahead for our readers and our communities. We will do our best along the way. If you have ideas or thoughts, always feel free to reach out to me (email is best).
That is it for this week. I’d love to hear from you. As always, feel free to reach out to me at publisher@thevillagereporter.com or via mail at 115 Broad Street, Montpelier, Ohio 43543.
