I will have more on this subject in the future, but for now our readers probably need to be aware of the difficult situation our newspapers at Marquette and Ellsworth are in, thanks to Gatehouse Media and its purchase of the former Harris Family newspapers, including the Salina Journal, Hays Daily News and Hutchinson News.

Several weeks ago, Gatehouse announced it planned to close the press in Salina and move all printing to Hutchinson — literally in a matter of days. Printing customers, including us, had been warned this might happen. But that’s where the customer service ended.

I heard about the move from former co-workers at the Salina Journal. Perhaps Gatehouse invested some thought into its decision, but certainly no time was spent on planning.

The last couple of weeks have been a nightmare. At one point a week ago, the crew at Hutchinson was backed up nine hours, which meant not all of the papers were delivered on time to make Wednesday’s mail. The I-R made the cut; however, Marquette was a day late arriving in mail boxes because of the delay.

At home, my Salina Journal arrives some days. Other days it doesn’t. My Aug. 25 Sunday paper didn’t arrive until Monday. It’s as if the mail room at some point gave up and decided to wait until the next day to deliver the paper. How else to explain two days’ worth of papers notso-neatly wrapped in the same bag?

That said, the I-R and other newspapers printed by Gatehouse will continue to do their best to provide excellent service. We value our customers.

LMD