Letter from the Editor: Lubbock press shutting down

By David H. Waller

Last Tuesday night, I got a text from Melinda: “Check your email.” It was somewhat late, and I had a feeling something was up. Sure enough, when I opened my inbox, the subject line of the message confirmed it,  “Another Printer to Bite The Dust.”

The email linked to a story from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. In short, the printing press in Lubbock, the same one that’s been producing The Albany News for years, will soon shut down. Their printing operations are being moved to Juarez, Mexico.

When I first considered buying The Albany News last fall, one of my main concerns was making sure we had a reliable printing solution in place. I did my homework. All signs pointed to Lubbock being a solid, long-term option. It had history. It had scale. It had experienced staff. But sometimes, even the surest bets can come up short. This news even caught the employees in Lubbock by surprise. They found out the same way I did, with little warning and even less time to react.

For context, The Albany News has been printed in Lubbock ever since the Abilene Reporter-News stopped printing in Abilene. That shift was a big one, but it worked, and worked well, for years. So now, here we are again, facing another transition.

But what is life if everything always goes according to plan?

I’ve always believed that adversity is what sharpens us. Growth rarely happens when everything is easy. I remind myself often: If it weren’t for the hard times, the good times wouldn’t seem so good. It’s a phrase I’ve leaned on through life, and I’m leaning on it again now.

Of course, I want to be clear, I know this situation isn’t the end of the world. There are families in Texas right now who are grieving loved ones lost in floods. Others are facing devastating circumstances that far outweigh the disruption of a printing change. This is not that. This is just a bump in the road, and we don’t need sympathy.

But I do want to be transparent with our readers. You deserve to know what’s going on behind the scenes. After all, this paper belongs to this community, and I’m just the one lucky enough to help shepherd it for now.

Here’s what we’re doing. We’re already reaching out to other printing facilities across Texas. Some are nearby, others are farther away. We’re even exploring out-of-state and international options. It’s not ideal — but we’re not interested in making excuses. We’re interested in solutions.

No matter what it takes, we’re going to keep printing this paper. We’re going to keep putting it in your hands, in your mailboxes, and on your kitchen tables every week. That’s the promise we make as a local paper. And it’s a promise I intend to keep.

The Albany News has been around for 150 years. It has seen world wars, depressions, droughts, floods, and technology shifts that changed the industry a dozen times over. We’ll figure this out too.

Because this paper matters, to me, to our team, and to our readers. We’ve got stories to tell, games to cover, history to record, and people to celebrate. Albany’s story deserves to be told, and we’re not going anywhere.

Thanks for sticking with us. I’ll keep you posted as we find our next printing partner. And no matter where the press is located, the heart of this paper will always be right here in Shackelford County.

– David H. Waller