Ten years ago, the price of a gallon of gasoline was $2.14. This morning, I filled up Paula’s pickup and the price was $3.96 — down from where it was a few weeks ago when it topped the $4.05 mark. My candy bar of choice would be a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. However, 10 years ago, the treat costed $.99 for the standard two pack. Today, this coveted snack of mine costs $1.99 on a sale rack and over $2.50 on a rack in a convenience store. The world famous McDonald’s Quarter Pounder 10 years ago set you back $3.70 and today, that same mouth watering burger will cost you $5.79.

Ten years ago, the price of a single issue of The Sabetha Herald picked up at Garrett’s Country Mart cost the consumer $1. Last week, that same location was selling the Herald for $1. Yes, the price of a single copy of the Herald has not gone up for just shy of 10 years. Unfortunately, that scenario will change beginning Wednesday, July 1, when the price will raise to $2 for a single copy.

I am sure doubling the price of a single copy will come as a shock to our readership, but we simply do not have a choice. The costs of producing the newspaper have finally surpassed what we sell the finished product for. Many months ago, I penned an editorial stating what was taking place in the newspaper industry, so I will not rehash all of that, but every week, another weekly newspaper in this country closes the front door and ceases operations.

If the Herald wants to avoid the same fate, we have to raise our rates to cover our costs. As of last week, the cost of printing The Sabetha Herald was $0.85 per copy and the price of mailing the paper to subscribers who choose that option was $0.36. If you happen to be an out-of-state subscriber, the cost of mailing that paper to your home has now risen to $0.85 a copy. Then, I was informed a couple of weeks ago that effective on July 1 the postage rates for periodicals will go up once again.

Our postage rates for the Herald have been raised twice a year for the last six years. Printing and postage costs alone are now costing The Herald $1.21 and yet, we have been selling the paper for $1 for a single copy.

The alarming part of this cost of production update is that these prices are just for printing and mailing. When I begin to factor in wages for employees, health care costs, insurance, and all of the other costs of maintaining a business, I am amazed that we have been able to keep putting out a paper. We have been able to keep the business operating at the level we have been due to the loyal advertisers that continue to support our paper by placing ads.

When I took over the Herald back in 2004, the advertising base in the community was considerably larger than what it is now. There are not as many businesses in the community that there were over 20 years ago, which is a phenomenon that is not uncommon in small rural communities across the country.

Basically, the local businesses have been subsidizing The Sabetha Herald in order to have a weekly community newspaper and no one appreciates that more than I do. However, The Herald cannot continue to rely on advertisers to keep the paper in production and that is why the consumer price will go up. Traditionally, consumer prices for everything we need to live have continually gone up and since we have not raised the single copy price in 10 years, it is time to catch up.

I feel that this paper has a long standing reputation of excellence since its inception and I don’t want to see that disappear. I must state and admit that I have nothing to do with the weekly production of the paper. I have and always have had wonderful dedicated employees that poured their heart and soul into the production and content of The Herald.

The three girls that are currently producing your award-winning weekly paper are simply amazing at what they accomplish each and every week. The public has no idea what it takes to produce a paper on a weekly basis. It is an extremely complicated process that takes place on their computers each day, which does not even factor in the content that they have to come up with and produce. I am not exaggerating when I state what they pull off each week is simple amazing.

With that being said, I can also point out that these three girls have not had a raise in over two years, because the money has not simply been there to do that. That cannot — and will not — continue and that is also why the cost of the paper will increase. However, this decision was not made without a lot of discussion and conferring with fellow business operators in the community.

When the facts were presented to our peers, they were in total agreement with our decision to raise the rates to what we have selected. We also presented the probability of a price increase to several customers that dropped into The Herald and they also totally understood where we were coming from. We cannot sell a product to the consumer for less money than it costs to produce it.

A few weeks ago, Paula and I spent a considerable amount of time talking with an editor from a weekly newspaper in southeast Kansas. That paper recently raised their single copy issue price to $2. When we said we were hesitant to raise the price to that level, the editor flat out told us to, “just do it and get it over with rather than raising the rate again in a couple of years.”

There is a positive spin to this announcement, as we still have an option for our readership to avoid such a price increase. The Herald’s online version of the paper is still up and running and gaining more subscribers each month. You can subscribe to the digital version of the Herald for $50 per year and save a considerable amount of money.

The digital issue is easy to navigate and it is always there for you to read whenever you want. It is delivered right to your computer or phone as soon as the girls finish the paper on Tuesdays. It is easy to read and the quality of the pictures is amazing. Digital subscribers also can view full photo galleries of youth, sports or various community events that we take pictures at. There isn’t much someone can do that does not involve the use of a computer, so why not add your local newspaper to that as well.

On the negative side of this announcement, the cost of having a paper mailed to you locally or out-of-state will double beginning in July. We simply cannot avoid it any longer. To put it in a consumer context, it will cost you half of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup per week to have it mailed to you. Again, it has been 10 years since we have raised the single copy rate.

I had a local businessman — who has customers come into his business and pick up The Herald off of the table in his office — tell me that his customers wished their community had a newspaper that looked like The Sabetha Herald. This just goes to show, that The Herald has been blessed with great people behind the scenes over the years and it shows in the product they put out.

Hopefully, the community feels the same way and will continue to support their local newspaper — a trusted and reliable source for local news.

Tim Kellenberger

Editor-in-Chief