Dear Readers,

If you’re reading this message in the e-edition of the newspaper, great. That means you probably got your paper when you wanted to read it. If you’re reading this message in the printed newspaper, we’re sorry for the delay. It is completely out of our control and we did our best to get it to you as soon as we could. We got a call on Wednesday letting us know that power outages, likely caused by wildfires in the region, affected the printing press where we print the Plaindealer each week. These intermittent power outages make it impossible to get through press runs, and it wasn’t possible for us to get the paper printed on schedule. We’re not the only ones – papers from Meeker to Grand Junction, Delta to Moab are printed at this press.

We’re grateful to the folks at the Montrose Daily Press for printing the Plaindealer and want you to know this was out of their control, too.

You might ask why we wouldn’t just get it printed somewhere else. Well, it’s not that simple. You can’t just run to a Kinkos and crank it out. If we don’t print the Plaindealer in Montrose, our next-closest options would be in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or Salida. Neither of those are real options.

We hope you understand this delay is just one more example of why we encourage all of you to read the e-edition of the newspaper, or at least sign up for the e-edition even if you subscribe to the physical newspaper. It’s included in your subscription, and it’s exactly the same product. We have more control over e-edition delivery, you have the paper when you want to read it and we usually don’t have these kinds of delays (unless we have tech issues, knock on wood). If you’re not signed up yet for the e-edition, please email mike@ouraynews.com and we’ll get you set up.

We also understand many of you prefer to read the printed paper, and we know that’s an experience you savor. That’s fine – but please understand it comes with more hiccups. Papers get lost in the mail, papers take longer to get to your mailbox, and sometimes papers cannot be printed on time due to power outages. That’s just the way it is.

Thank you for your understanding and continuing to read the Plaindealer in whichever format you choose.

Erin McIntyre is the co-publisher of the Plaindealer. Email her at erin@ouraynews.com.