Adapting to a new era

We are inspired and encouraged by the ingenuity and determination that Gazetteland businesses have demonstrated when faced with challenges that this pandemic presents.

Restaurants adapted menus to curbside pickup and takeout. Teachers rolled up their sleeves to provide lessons for students stuck at home.

Food service providers have kept students fed during the shut down, while still adhering to social distancing recommendations. Churches are holding online services to keep their congregations connected. Nursing homes have figured out ways to keep loved ones close while still protecting the most vulnerable. And of course, our medical community has provided outstanding leadership in preparing for what has been and may become an even greater challenge in the weeks ahead.

Every business has had to examine their operations and determine the best way forward during these troubling times. My team here at the Gazette has been doing the same thing. Frankly, we have determined that publishing a print newspaper five days a week no longer makes sense.

Believe me, we know how many of you count on receiving that newspaper on your doorstep and mailbox every day. We understand that you count on us to cover the important news and events of the area and that you enjoy seeing your friends, family, and neighbors featured on our pages.

We will continue to provide the coverage you count on, and it will be available online every day as soon as it is ready for publication. Print readers won’t miss any local stories, they will all be included in the print version of our paper, which will be published and distributed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, beginning the week of April 20. Subscription prices will remain the same.

This change will allow our reporters more time to actually write stories. Presently, our writers also design several pages each day, an important technical process that is time-consuming, but does not add important local content that our readers look for. Our commitment is to increase local and feature stories as reporters will have two days each week to concentrate on interviewing and writing stories without the distraction of meeting page design deadlines.

While this change has been something I have been contemplating for a while, the sudden drop off in advertising and insert revenue that occurred over the past few weeks has accelerated the need to make a move now.

We count on the local and regional retail community for advertising revenue, and they have been hit hard as their patrons have followed instructions to limit exposure. We support them in their quest to find new ways to serve you, and we fully understand their need to tighten their belts and slash budgets. We must do the same thing.

Since 1911, the McCook Gazette has been covering the good times and the bad for the people of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. We’ve seen many changes and challenges throughout the area, and we have been there to document them in print and digital form for future generations. Challenges in our industry have sometimes given us sleepless nights, but we have embraced the opportunities that those challenges also presented.

We are choosing to embrace this opportunity as well. We look forward to expanding local content, both online and in print. We look forward to coming out of this trying time stronger than ever and even more pioneering in our ability to serve your needs.

I encourage you to check out our web site; www.mccookgazette.com. Much of our content is only available to subscribers, although we did make all of our coronavirus content free to everyone. That is because we believe that our mission is to inform the public during a time of crisis with reliable critical information. We can do that best online.

Every print subscriber has access to all of our online content. If you are a subscriber and have not already set up an online account, please do so now by clicking on the Register button at the top of the screen. It’s pretty user-friendly, but if you need help, call Sharon at (308) 345-4500 extension 108.

If you are not a subscriber, please consider doing so now. You have the option of subscribing to the print edition which includes online access; or online only, which includes a digital version of our print paper. Your support of our local coverage is vital to our existence, and we so appreciate our readers, advertisers, and community partners.

Please call me, Publisher Shary Skiles, at (308) 345-4500 option 9, or 1-800-269-1426; extension 106, and tell us how we can better serve you.