Season’s greetings from the Gazette staff! This has been quite a year, and like you, we are reveling in this season of celebration and reflection.
Unlike a lot of rural communities across the Midwest, we have a newspaper with an active readership and solid community engagement. Your ideas, your feedback, and your contributions are the best. My wife and I have been grateful for your support since we bought the paper in 2015.
Unfortunately, this last year has been trying on everybody’s wallets and we at the Gazette are far from the exception. Postage and mailing costs have increased 40% over the past two years, with another increase happening on Jan. 1, 2024. Printing costs have likewise gone up at just about 30% as well.
Obviously, if we want to stay in business, we have no choice but to raise prices on everything, so effective January 1, 2024 we’re raising the cost of subscriptions, our ad rates and even our single-issue copies. Local and statewide subscriptions will now be $45 per year and single-issue copies will be $1.50. The way things are going, I may have to raise them more in the near future. I never like raising rates, but I also have to face reality that if I don’t do it, I won’t be able to pay my salary or pay our bills.
However, our online edition will be staying at the same rate of $40 per year, so for tech savvy folks, you’ll be getting a good break as we won’t have to send yours through the mail since the server space has been already paid for. We do have a growing customer base that gets their Garretson area news on their smartphone/tablet/home computer, but the vast majority of our readers and customers want the printed product, and I want to continue to provide that product to you. If the higher cost truly is a burden for you, please do not hesitate to contact us at 605-594-2006 or email .
If you know of someone who does not receive the paper and would benefit, please consider getting them a gift subscription. It's a gift that gives all year long.
Another way to support the Gazette is to support our local business community, as their advertising helps keep this paper alive. The stronger the businesses here are, the stronger our community is, and the stronger this newspaper becomes.
We take a lot of pride in our content and our community. It truly is my privilege to work here, and to have such a high participation and community involvement in your weekly newspaper. Having served on the board of directors of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association for five years now, I tell my colleagues all the time that I have the most invested community of readers that I have ever seen or experienced in all my 30-plus years in the business. So, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and ask for your continued support of our hometown newspaper.
