The newspaper you’re reading is mailed to nearly 900 post office boxes and street addresses in more than 40 states every week and sent to more than 1,300 email addresses.

Once in a while, a mailed newspaper finds its way back to our P.O. box in Ouray. Usually it’s sent back to us because a subscriber moved and didn’t provide a forwarding address. On a few occasions, the Postal Service has mysteriously claimed we have an incorrect address for a subscriber — even though every other edition sent to that same address apparently made it for years without fail.

The most bizarre return happened when we received a paper rejected for delivery for a specific reason. I did a double-take when I read the yellow label announcing why the Postal Service was rejecting delivery.

Deceased. I was shocked — and a bit skeptical. I had written a story about this subscriber when he bought and took over a business in Ouray County. He later moved to the Midwest but continued to subscribe. I called him and was only mildly surprised when he answered.

I don’t know how the Postal Service managed to mistakenly declare that one of their customers had shuffled off this mortal coil.

It’s just one example of how the agency has struggled to deliver mail in a consistent and timely fashion in recent years. At the same time, postal rates have steadily increased — and they’re about to go up again.

So here’s our request to you, dear reader: If you already subscribe to the Plaindealer e-edition — either by itself or together with the printed newspaper — thank you.

If you aren’t currently receiving the e-edition, we encourage you to try it out. There are several reasons why:

• Early access! The e-edition arrives in your inbox every Wednesday evening. The print edition doesn’t make it to our newspaper racks until late Wednesday night and doesn’t go out in the mail until Thursday morning. Depending on where you live, you may not get it for several days or a week. E-readers get the first look at each edition.
• Easy to read! The e-edition comes in a PDF format that you can download and flip through on your phone, tablet or computer, just like you were reading a physical copy.
• Price! An e-subscription ($48) costs less than a print subscription ($52 or $65). We started including an e-subscription with all print subscriptions at no additional charge a few years ago.
• Read it anywhere! As long as you have an internet connection, you can read the e-edition while you’re out of town or on vacation. No need to wait until you get home to catch up on the news.

This is a screenshot of the Plaindealer’s e-edition, delivered to email inboxes on Wednesday night (before the printed paper is delivered). You can click on the pages and read them online. It’s exactly like the printed paper – just delivered to your email inbox.

We have increasingly heard complaints from print subscribers who are receiving their paper later than normal — or not all. We share your frustration. We want you to get your paper as quickly as possible and be informed. Unfortunately, we have no control over mailed paper delivery. Once the labels have been applied to newspapers rolling off the press in Montrose and the papers are dropped off at the post office, it’s out of our hands. No, we cannot mail another one. No, we cannot track it and see where it went.

The Plaindealer holds a periodicals permit which allows us to mail in bulk quantities at a discount. The cost of sending replacement newspapers via first-class mail to subscribers who have their papers delayed, misdelivered or lost would be exorbitant. On top of that, we have the next edition to work on and limited resources ourselves.

To be clear, we do not fault local post office employees for the Postal Service’s problems. They are dedicated workers who have been understaffed for years. The people making the decisions that affect their ability to do their job are several pay grades above them and several hundreds of miles away.

That’s where the convenience and reliability of the e-edition comes in. It assures you receive the Plaindealer at virtually the same time every week, without fail (absent the rare occasion it gets caught in your spam filter).

We know changing reading habits is difficult for some. The printed newspaper offers a sense of permanence, a tangible thread that ties the community together. In an era when so much is fleeting, there’s a timelessness to ink on newsprint. We enjoy reading the printed paper and love when we see clippings on people’s fridges.

But newspapers’ transition away from a printed to digital product has been in the works for 20 years, and the Postal Service’s delivery issues are just part of it. Newspapers across the country continue to slash print days or stop printing altogether as costs climb.

We have no plans to eliminate a printed newspaper anytime soon. As long as our friends in Montrose are willing to print the Plaindealer, as long as it’s financially sustainable, we will continue to produce and deliver a product you can enjoy with your morning coffee while smudging your fingers with ink.

Unfortunately, there’s little reason to believe mail delivery service will markedly improve. In fact, it’s more likely service, especially in rural areas, will degrade further. For more than a year, the Postal Service has been discussing a plan to shift some mail processing from Grand Junction to Denver. Mail addressed to 814, 815 and 816 zip codes would be sent to Denver for processing, then returned to the Western Slope for delivery. That initiative is on hold for now. We suspect this terrible idea will resurface at some point.

At the same time, the Postal Service continues to jack up rates. Last month, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved another price increase: an average 9.4% hike on the Plaindealer and other periodicals that will take effect in July. It will be the ninth rate increase since January 2020. And we just received notice that our printing costs are also going to increase.

Those are substantial costs we’ve absorbed in the last five years while trying to limit our own price increases for single copies and subscriptions.

You might ask if we can print the newspaper elsewhere. The answer is no. The closest printing presses are in Salida and Santa Fe, make them inviable options.

Please, try the e-edition. It’s all the same reporting and photojournalism, just in a different format. And it’s a delivery method we can better control. If you’re getting the printed newspaper but not the e-edition yet, email me at mike@ouraynews.com and I’ll set you up.

As always, thank you for supporting your community newspaper, no matter how you decide to read it.

Mike Wiggins is the co-publisher of the Plaindealer. Email him at mike@ouraynews.com.