Over the past six months, we’ve had an increasing number of readers calling and emailing with the same question: “Where is my Gazette?”
Some missed this month’s issue. Others tell us they haven’t received one for a few months.
When I acquired the Neighborhood Gazette, the paper was still being delivered the old-fashioned way—people physically carrying it to your doorstep. It took a full week to hit every home and resulted in calls about trampled gardens, wet newspapers, papers tossed into lawns and even, “If I see this paper on my porch, i’ll pull a gun on your head” Yes, we actually got those calls.
Eventually, we decided to deliver the Gazette through the mail. It was considerably more expensive, but the paper would arrive safely in your mailbox, protected from sprinklers, snowstorms and the occasional newspaper-eating lawn mower.
The papers leave our printer already bundled by neighborhood and postal route, are trucked to the postal distribution system and then sent to the appropriate post offices for delivery.
For years, it worked pretty darn well. Then, about six months ago, calls about missing Gazette’s started increasing—and often from the same neighborhoods.
I asked one reader to go into the post office and ask why she hadn’t received her Gazette. She was told that delivery depend on the carrier and how much mail they had that day. That was frustrating to hear. This month, even our featured artist didn’t receive her Gazette. I actually started driving to the homes of a few readers who called and personally delivering copies.
There is something especially frustrating about knowing how much work goes into every issue. Writers create the stories. They’re edited, designed and resized to fit the pages. The paper is printed, bundled, trucked to the postal system and delivered to individual post offices.
And then, after all that—and after we’ve paid thousands of dollars for delivery—hundreds of copies apparently never make it to the homes and end up in the garbage bins at the post office.
I want to be clear: I love the Post Office. I’m constantly amazed that this enormous delivery network works as well as it does. So rather than just complain, I walked over to the Wheat Ridge Post Office on Wadsworth to have a conversation.
I met with a supervisor who was already aware of the problem. In fact, he remembered our featured artist coming in and asking where her Gazette was.
Long story longer… The Post Office took the issue seriously and wants to help us figure out where the breakdown is occurring. So now we need your help.
If you do not receive your Gazette, please email me your address only—no name needed—at [email protected].
Each month, we will compile the missing addresses and provide them to the Post Office so they can investigate the specific routes and hopefully get us back to full distribution.
You can always pick up a Gazette at the Wheat Ridge Recreation Center, City Hall, Lutheran Hospital, Stylus & Crate, Wheat Ridge Meat on 29th, Clancy’s and Wheat Ridge Lanes on 38th and many other locations around town.
We also heard from so many of you at the Carnation Festival. Our booth was constantly busy with readers thanking us for delivering good news and celebrating the people who make our community special.
We recruited several new writers, and I’m excited about the new voices and topics you’ll be seeing in the coming months.
I was also proud to once again host the Carnation Festival Parade. Nothing like a good parade to remind us just how wonderfully “small town” we still are.
As always, thanks for reading.
