Editorial

In June of this year, the editors and publishers of The Odessa Record celebrated the fifth anniversary of having purchased the newspaper from the estate of former editor and publisher Don Walter. The time has absolutely flown by, and it is hard to believe that we ourselves are fast approaching retirement age.

We have made some progress over the past five years in clearing away some of the debt that saddled the newspaper when we bought it. We are no longer paying off a Staples credit card, and we do not have a huge backlog owed to the company that prints our paper.

At certain times of the year, we even enjoy the feeling of not owing anyone. When we do extra projects like the Deutschesfest supplement and our visitor guide This Is Odessa, we have great support from the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, and we are able to get a little bit ahead financially.

But of course that optimism soon evaporates, especially when the winter doldrums strike, as they do each year. The first few months of the year always seem to be times when companies are tightening their belts and trying not to spend advertising money. We are a business, too, and we understand the need to be fiscally conservative. But businesses need to have their names out there in front of the public, or the public with its notoriously short memory will forget about them.

After much soul-searching, we have come to the conclusion that if we are to continue running the paper our prices will have to go up. Postage keeps increasing, as do printing costs, the price of office supplies and so on and so forth. We had a small increase in our subscription rates a couple of years ago, which was helpful but did not keep up with the pace of increased operating costs.

For five years we have tried our best to pay off our debt, keep our accounts current and pay our employees on time. For the most part we have been able to do that but only by taking no salary for ourselves. Were we independently wealthy, we would not give a second thought to this issue, because running the paper and being thanked again and again by our subscribers for doing so would be reward enough.

So we are contemplating an accross-the-board increase in our subscription and advertising rates. We still have some number-crunching to do, but by the end of the year, if not before, we will be announcing our plans. We have heard from several subscribers that our subscription prices are surprisingly low. We would hate to create hardship for those of our subscribers who are on low, fixed incomes, but anyone unable to pay the new rates should give us a call and perhaps we can come to some sort of arrangement.

Some of our local businesses are struggling themselves, and we know that advertising costs are sometimes given a low priority. Some folks around town try to save a few bucks for their events by posting signs downtown and foregoing the newspaper completely. Think about the towns around us that no longer have a newspaper. Use it or lose it could well be our motto. If you'd rather post signs and use only social media for your ads and communications, one day very soon the newspaper will simply go away.

We certainly don't want that to happen. Over a hundred years of history would come to an abrupt halt. Maybe it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it sure would break out hearts.