An open letter from the publisher

I agree with you.

I too would like your Southeast Iowa Union to remain a daily paper as it has been for decades. Our whole team feels a deep sense of purpose in delivering news that you look forward to daily. It is not without some emotion on our end that we are converting to a twice weekly.

The alternative, however, is simply ceasing to exist. Choices must be made, and this was certainly not an easy one.

Sadly, these moves are becoming more common in the newspaper industry. The Ottumwa newspaper is three days per week and Oskaloosa two days per week. The newspapers in Centerville, Knoxville and Pella all ceased. Even the Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in the state, has dropped a day and only prints 6 days per week, and not on major holidays, after printing every single day for well over 100 years. There are plenty of other examples.

Emotion aside, the reality is that expenses have gone up considerably, especially printing and postage. It is not cheap to mail out thousands of newspapers per day. It is also not cheap to print them, or pay professionals to create content, shoot photos, design pages, sell advertising, sort and distribute papers to post offices, handle billing, manage subscription lists, or a whole list of other things.

While these expenses have never been small, we have now reached a place where subscription and advertising revenue can no longer sustain a daily paper. We wouldn’t be able to raise our rates fast enough to keep up, and you couldn’t be reasonably expected to pay them if we did.

We are continuously looking for ways to keep your newspaper viable and valuable, but we can’t do it without you. It is loyal subscribers and advertisers that allow us to continue covering the news, events, people and places that, frankly, you cannot get from any other single source.

Yes, you can get a little from Facebook, and a little from X (twitter) or Instagram, but is it credible? You can track down multiple funeral home websites and look for relevant obits. You can search the internet and monitor the airwaves to find nuggets of what you are looking for, assuming you know what you are looking for in the first place.

Or you can continue supporting your local paper. We send trained reporters to many city council, school board and supervisor meetings. We talk to public safety officials to find out what really happened. We report on the things that can literally affect your life, like changes in your local ambulance service. Not to mention our coverage of local sports and features about interesting local folks. We then package it and send it directly to you.

I think I could make an argument that we will be able to cover all of that even better without the daily deadline pressures we have been putting on our hardworking - but limited - staff. We can cover more meetings in-person, dig deeper into issues that need to be addressed, and find more stories that need to be told.

Despite the reduction in the number of papers you get per week, you will not see a reduction in local stories. Again, no reduction in local story count. Our goal and mission is to maintain or increase the story count from Henry, Jefferson and Washington counties. What you will see much less of is news from outside our three-county region. We will tighten it up to make it more relevant and enjoyable for you.

While I understand that it is not as appealing to everyone, if you need your news fix more frequently, make sure you visit southeastiowaunion.com. Content will be posted there as it is ready, not after it has been printed. Obits will be uploaded as we get them. Sports highlights posted soon after the game. The industry buzzword for this is “digital-first.” In some respects this allows us to continue to be daily.

I could go on, and I may do so in a later column, but please know that we are on the same page. However you may feel about this announcement, we have had all of the same emotions tenfold. Alternatives were considered and reluctantly discarded.

All we ask of you is a chance to prove ourselves.

We truly believe, honestly and unequivocally, that we can be a leaner, meaner, stronger and - in many ways - a better newspaper.

Your hometown newspaper.

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