Talking about rate increases is rarely fun. But, when the research shows there are few options, the inevitable news is best received – and delivered – from someone close to the situation.

And in this case, I don’t think there’s anyone closer to the situation than me, the person who launched this newspaper group three decades ago. We’ve been through a lot together over the years, and I’ve always tried to be open and honest with you, our readers.

This week, all subscription rates for TSnews, your weekly newspaper, will be going up substantially. This marks the largest subscription rate increase for our newspaper group, and after much deliberation, the rate increase is clearly unavoidable.

As an example, the base subscription for one year is going up from $46 to $60. Rates for other subscription options with us will go up as well, with smaller increases for senior citizen rates and two-year subscriptions.

Why such a large increase, and why now? This has been a difficult year for community newspapers, which are largely mailed to customers through the U.S. Postal Service. At mid-year, newspapers like ours were hit with a substantial postage increase, and it has taken some time to study that impact.

Then, another shoe dropped right at the end of the year as it was announced that community newspapers would have to move immediately to electronic filing of the paperwork that is required each week by the Postal Service. Our printer in Hutchinson, which preps our mailings for us, will be helping us and other newspapers printed there with that new mandate...but at a substantial cost.

In recent months, we have watched other newspapers implement large subscription rate increases and our new rates are very much in line with what other newspapers like us are now charging. Along with the subscription rate increase, we also will be implementing a long-overdue increase in the single-copy rate for our newspaper at purchase sites around our coverage area. The new single copy rate will be $2, and will be implemented soon.

Everywhere we go around the communities we cover with this newspaper, readers thank us for the job we are doing, and the coverage of news, features and sports they receive every week. We are honord to be your local newspaper, and want to continue meeting the demands – and rewards – of this job.

The subscription revenues we receive from you, our readers, all go to helping cover the printing and mailing costs of each week’s TSnews. I said “helping” because even with this rate increase, we are just covering some of those costs as we focus on keeping this business afloat.

Thanks in advance for understanding the unavoidable need for this subscription rate increase, and we look forward to continuing to serve you, our readers.