A money-saving opportunity

We’re offering readers of the Times Pilot an opportunity to save money. It looks as though we’ll have to raise our prices a bit in the next month or so, because newspaper postal rates are going up about 20%. We’ll have to raise our subscription price by about $10 per year. We’re trying to keep it as low as possible — that’s only about 10 cents per issue (we send out 104 annually). The new price will take effect Sept. 1. If you’d like to save a few dollars, you can subscribe at the current price until then. If you already have a subscription, you can extend it at this lower rate as well. If you’re on a tight budget, you are welcome to try our monthly payment plan, where you can have your subscription charged to your credit card for just $7.99 per month. We think the Times Pilot is a great value, full of news about people and places you know. We’re your one-stop source of what’s happening at city hall, the courthouse, schools, churches, agriculture, you name it. We try to publish the newsiest newspaper in Iowa and we have increased our news staff in recent months to continue our mission to provide the best community journalism in the state. We appreciate your readership. POSTAGE IS a sizable expense for us. We spend over $277,000 a year in postage for the Times Pilot, Ad Guide, and publications we do for outside customers. I don’t know if we’re the Storm Lake Post Office’s biggest customer, but if not, we must be right up there near the top. The local post offices do a great job getting our newspapers delivered in neighboring communities. But labor shortages are putting some offices in a squeeze. We have heard that postal routes in Spencer and Cherokee, for example, have occasionally gone undelivered on some days in recent months because of carrier shortages. Storm Lake has fortunately avoided that problem so far, but that’s not to say it couldn’t happen here. I notice help wanted signs in the windows of post offices all over the area. If you like working outside, a career as a letter carrier might be for you. Check it out at your local post office and help us get the news delivered. WE HEAR national politicians carping about the economy, but I don’t understand it. Every business, not just the Postal Service, seems to have a hard time filling jobs. Unemployment nationally is the best it’s been since the 1950s — in Iowa it’s under 3% — and wages are higher than ever. Meanwhile, there are people from South America waiting at our southern border who are willing and able to work without taking any jobs from the rest of us. Maybe we could let some of them in? John Cullen is the founder and retired publisher of The Storm Lake Times. He can be reached at news@stormlake.com.