Happy New Year! It’s my favorite holiday. I love the sense of optimism that comes with opening a new calendar, brushing off the dust from the last 12 months and welcoming a new one. Whether you make New Year’s resolutions or not, it’s a good time for introspection and setting some new intentions.
I’m looking at my resolutions a little differently this year. Instead of the typical “to-do” list, I’m starting with a reverse perspective: what do I want to leave behind? What baggage have I been dragging along that I’m ready to do away with? None of us need more lists of things to do, but we all have a collection of things that are no longer serving us. It might be actual tangible junk piled up in your house or garage, bad habits that are harming your mental or physical health, or emotional or relational junk that needs to go.
I’m reminded of those pioneer settlers heading west in covered wagons who realized along the way some of the stuff they’d loaded into their Conestoga wagons was hindering them, not helping. Getting to the goal — and sometimes surviving — required leaving some things behind on the trail. Most of us reiterate our New Year’s resolutions year after year… the map to our goals hasn’t changed. Maybe we need to see what extra baggage we’re hauling around that’s keeping us from reaching those goals.
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If you saw the notice in last week’s paper that subscription rates are going up, here’s the “why.” Postage rates for periodical mailings (newspapers, magazines, etc.) have increased faster than the price of a stamp, and that’s saying something. Prior to the appointment of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General in 2020, periodical mail rates went up about 2% a year. In 2021 and 2022, rates have gone up about 8% every six months with another 7.6% increase coming in January 2023.
Shortages of newsprint (not enough paper companies in the U.S. make it anymore), have caused increases in the cost of printing, and distribution costs are higher because of regular ol’ inflation — to the tune of about 15%. We’ve absorbed those increasing costs in the interest of sustaining community journalism, but that’s obviously not viable long-term.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the price for a one-year in-county subscription will increase from $40 to $50. An out-of-county subscription will increase from $60 to $70. The online-only subscriptions are increasing from $25 to $35. Why? Because the price for hosting our website went up, too.
For some perspective, Jan Oldland brought in a stack of letters and receipts from her great-grandfather (and founder of the Meeker Herald) James Lyttle’s belongings, dating back to the paper’s first year or two in existence. Among them was a receipt for a $10 ad in March 1886 paid for by Mrs. S.C. Burke. At the top of the receipt, on the newspaper’s letterhead, are subscription rates from 1886: $3 per year, $1.75 for six months. In today’s dollars, that’s $70.89 per year, according to officialdata.org, so we’re not far off the mark.
As always, we are grateful for your continued support for local journalism and helping us keep this community story alive and well in 2023 and beyond. Thank you.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
