If you’ve ever pondered the purpose of the brown storage bench in front of the True Dakotan, it serves as a safe, early-morning depository for our press run of newspapers each week.
Each and every Tuesday, no later than 5 p.m., we upload the completed newspaper files to a server and Forum Communications in Sioux Falls begins the process of printing, bundling and bagging up the paper for delivery to Wessington Springs.
Typically, the paper is delivered to the aforementioned brown bench at about 3 a.m.
That wasn’t the case last week.
When True Dakotan office manager, Delia, arrived just before 6 a.m. last Wednesday to begin our mailing and distribution process, the only thing she found when she lifted the bench lid were a few crunchy, tawny leaves, remnants of warmer days when weather delays were a nonissue.
Typically we distribute counter copies to area businesses between 6:30 and 7 a.m., with local subscriptions heading out with mail carriers by 8 a.m. — but last week, blizzard conditions forced our delivery driver’s truck into the ditch somewhere between our printer in Sioux Falls and Wessington Springs.
Although I shared news about the weather delay via the True Dakotan website, social media platforms and flyers at area businesses, I quickly discovered that True Dakotan readers have a voracious appetite for their community news.
Our readers expect their community newspaper to not only cover local government meetings, major construction projects and breaking news — but every week they look for lunch menus at the senior center, public notices, obituaries, photos of school sports and events. From homicide to bowling league and everything in between, True Dakotan readers know where to look to find the information that impacts their lives: their community newspaper.
When we delivered the newspapers later that day, post office and Humm-Dinger employees informed me that they received near-constant phone calls from hundreds of area folks throughout the day, kindly but eagerly asking, “is the paper there yet?”
The event also resulted in some good-natured ribbing between my e-edition and print edition subscribers — for they had already read their paper online and didn’t have to wait for the news.
I want to thank not only the post office and Humm-Dinger employees that served as our onthe- fly customer service department last week, but also our readers, who waited with considerate, amiable patience.
In your readership, you show faith in the power of the printed word and in local democracy — fully realizing that the content in the True Dakotan each and every week is our community’s future history.
My hope is that you are reading this week’s edition on time, sheltered somewhere snug and safe as this blizzard passes through. Thank you for your understanding and patience, may you find yourself in a space that is as warm as your response last week.