editorial

For as long as we could, we have held our rates at only $.50 per paper. If you subscribe weekly, that newspaper then becomes $.39! By the time it is mailed to you, it drops down into the teens. Once you consider the time and work it takes to gather the news, pay employees to research and write, so on and so forth, we are in the negative.

While the special sections, and print work keep us in business, the local, weekly news is really why we’re here.

Sure, there’s youtube and facebook, tiktok and instagram, but the newspaper of a city is the one single place you can go, as a local or as a visitor, to get all of the information you’re looking for, collectively. Did you just buy land and are looking for someone to level it, or a plumber to fix those leaking issues, and what about the best realtor around that could help you find the perfect property by the creek? Check out our advertisers!

To be able to continue offering a community directory of news, events, and services, we do have to come up to, at the very least, match every other county around us. They did it long before we did, and we held $.50 as long as we possibly could. However, beginning January 1, 2025, we will have to raise our Lewis County Herald Newspaper an additional $.50.

All other papers around us have been forced to do the same thing. Editor and Publisher of the Hickman County Times Bradley A. Martin stated, “We mail half the newspapers we print to our subscribers, and rates have increased more than 50 percent since 2021.”

At the end of January of this year, stamps weren’t the only rise in fees at the United States Postal Service. Packages went up 5.4%, Priority Mail 5.9%, and in-county Periodical mail (used for newspapers and magazines) went up 7.3%. The raises are part of USPS’ 10-year Delivering for America Plan for financial stability.

Local news organizations aren’t the only ones frustrated with the rising costs. “Our industry,” said National Newspaper Association chair John Galer, “has been doing a lot of mail preparation work for years to help keep postal costs down. For us to be punished adds outrage to our disappointment. Subscription increases will be made necessary by the postal service’s action.”

Before its 2021 plan launched, USPS postage increases had inflation-based price caps. The 10-year plan, though, allows it to raise rates faster than inflation.

Home delivery of your hyper-local, community news and happenings is still a value at 58 cents per issue with the new rates, especially considering home delivery subscribers get unlimited access to the paper’s website including the convenient e-paper and an online “best of” voting experience.

This is one of those things I have absolutely no control over and hate that it is affecting not only every newspaper organization in the United States, but also its readers, advertisers and contributors.

Beginning January 1st, 2025, the rates of the Lewis County Herald will be forced to raise to:

Lewis/Surrounding Counties:

$.58 = $30/year

All Other TN Counties:

$.73 = $38/year

Out of State:

$.90 = $47

Individual Sales/On Stands:

$1.00

Until then, I encourage you to come in and subscribe for 2025 before the rate changes from $.39 to $.58! And, a heart-felt THANK YOU goes to those who continue to support your local newsroom. The door is always open for questions and ideas to make it the best it can be.

I am eagerly working toward bringing new ideas and services to the Lewis County community, while continuing the tradition of bringing local news, events, and opinions readers have come to expect over the last 126 years. I hope you’ll stay along for the ride.