These are difficult times in our country. Scores of people are out of work, and families each day must walk a tightrope of putting food on their table and keeping a roof over their heads.
It has been well-documented that newspapers are not immune to many of the struggles facing today’s business world. Each day, there are stories about newspapers, both large and small, facing tight budgets, employee layoffs and, in some cases, closures.
In the past year, MetroWest and our corporate parent company, Landmark Media Enterprises, have faced similar economic struggles. With a tightening of our own budget and a lot of number crunching, we have been able to avoid employee layoffs but we also have made difficult decisions not to refill a number of positions. Employees have taken on multiple roles to help make these changes indiscernible to our customers. Likewise, we will strive to ensure last week’s mandate from our corporate office that our office will be closed for a total of five days over the next five months as a cost-saving measure, will also have little impact on our customers. While we certainly await some good news in this struggling economy as well as in the newspaper business, there are no plans to shutter any of our publications.
At the same time, we must be honest. Having fewer resources, especially in our newsroom, means we cannot guarantee we will be able to attend every community event, every city council, school board or fire district meeting like we once did. We must use great discretion in deciding how we use our thin resources to still provide community newspapers of which our community can be proud.
We might call on you a little more to submit photos or information. But, rest assured, whether we have one reporter or 100 reporters, our passion and commitment to producing quality papers will not change.
It seems fitting that, as a group of small community newspapers, we must share these common struggles with you. Certainly, the need to readjust budgets and make tough decisions in these uncertain times is not unique to any of our readers. And maybe having to face these same struggles with you will help us as we continue to tell your stories.
We appreciate your continued support and readership, and we, like you, look forward to better days.