News to be mailed on Friday mornings
Weekly printing of The Albany News continues to be a moving target with the usual press at the Abilene Reporter-News (ARN) still out of commission because of a Nov. 15 fire.
At least for the next few weeks, and possibly more long-term, the paper will be available online as usual on Thursday mornings, but won’t be mailed until early Friday morning. It will be on news stands Friday mornings as well.
The News was printed at ARN’s sister paper in Wichita Falls last week, but came out a day later than planned because Wichita Falls press workers were stretched to their limits to finish their own printing plus Abilene and San Angelo’s, which has also been printed at the ARN plant, before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Publisher Donnie Lucas learned last Friday, however, that the News would need to submit its entire paper by Sunday afternoon in order to maintain a Thursday morning mail time.
“Otherwise, they said we might be printed by Friday afternoon or possibly even Saturday,” said Lucas.
The Wichita Falls press, which is smaller than Abilene’s, is also limited on how many color pages can be printed.
“Those things combined with the fact that our small staff can’t possibly finish by Sunday afternoon, caused us to look at some other alternatives,” said Lucas. “We discovered that there just aren’t any options close by with the same paper width and there also isn’t a web press in the area that’s not already booked up on Wednesday afternoon and evening, which is when we’re used to being printed.”
After searching for several days, the News staff has settled on a Lubbock firm that can work the local paper into its schedule on Thursday.
“We will upload the pages electronically as we usually do, but we will have to drive to Lubbock to pick up the finished product,” Lucas explained. “This seems to be the best solution, because although this web width is just slightly narrower, they can print all the color pages we need.”
The News will be printed in Lubbock and mailed on Friday mornings until further notice.
“We hope this won’t be a major inconvenience for our readers,” said Lucas. “We know it’s not what you’re used to, but it’s something we don’t have a lot of control over.”
Lucas asked that News customers be patient with the changes.
