An open letter to Morning Sun customers

To our customers:
We’ve all felt the pinch of tough times the past several months. Recent difficult announcements from Superior Industries and Altec Brake Systems have brought a dose of the national economy home to southeast Kansas.
The Morning Sun has not been immune from monetary pressures. The costs of our consumables have swelled. Transportation and delivery costs have multiplied. Newsprint has nearly doubled in cost since I started here six years ago, and it is expected to increase in price by another 10 percent by year’s end. The cost of ink has jumped 30 percent this year.
Accordingly, The Morning Sun will no longer publish on Mondays, beginning Sept. 15.
No, we aren’t going anywhere. But tough economic challenges require proactive decisions, so we can stay vibrant. This decision has not been easy; in fact it has been very difficult. I am doing this because it is necessary. The savings realized by not printing on Mondays will allow us to publish a better and more compelling newspaper. And we’ll be still reporting and sharing information 24/7 with our popular www.morningsun.net Web site. The site will be better than ever.
This change allows us to increase the size of our reporting staff. This week, you will see the new SEK GameNight section for prep sports and its counterpart, SEKGameNight.com which will feature video highlights taken by our partners at FX Studios. Next week, The Morning Sun will add Spry, a magazine that will help you live healthier and happier. We recently added American Profile which many of you have said you love.
We certainly are not the only area newspaper to feel the affects of the economy. The parent companies of our colleagues in Wichita, Kansas City and Springfield, Mo., have all announced widespread job reductions. Our friends in Parsons and Chanute have eliminated a publishing day. And yes, other Kansas papers owned by our company, GateHouse Media, have dropped a print day.
Many will remember when we dropped a day 15 years ago. While that decision was later reversed, the possibility of dropping a day has been discussed every year since. It is very unusual for a community this size to have a seven-day newspaper. Fifteen years ago, we didn’t have the ability to publish online. Now we do, and morningsun.net averages nearly one million page views a month.
This decision will allow us to maintain our current subscription prices which have not changed since 2000. Pre-paid subscriptions have all been credited one day for each week remaining on the term. Therefore if you just paid for a year, your subscription will be extended 52 days.
Thank you to each of you for your loyalty to The Morning Sun. Your support and business is appreciated. We’ve served southeast Kansas since 1887, and we look forward to another 120 years.
 Sincerely,
Stephen Wade
Editor and Publisher