EDITORIAL: The Gloucester Daily Times is well worth your investment

The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
·3 min read

Sep. 5—Investing in your local newspaper is investing in your community, and a very wise investment indeed.

The Gloucester Daily Times has roots that have served Cape Ann for nearly 135 years. We are the paper of record for Cape Ann, providing essential services daily.

A strong local newspaper remains vital to the success of any community, and we intend to continue to serve our region in a quality manner for years to come. Believe us when we say that no one wants to see this area become a news desert.

With many newspapers closing their doors across the country in recent years, we have seen communities struggle to hold public officials accountable and a general lack of solid information delivered to residents who need it to make the most informed decisions in their daily lives.

People need to know what is going on in their community, and without a newspaper, the ability to stay informed suffers greatly.

Here at the Gloucester Daily Times, we take pride in what we do. It involves a 24-hour operation to keep a community informed.

We deliver local news and sports you can't get elsewhere, and editorials to inform the public about our opinions on a wide array of informative topics. Meanwhile, we provide the same forum for readers, who are encouraged to take a stand by writing commentaries and letters to the editor.

Additionally we provide legal notices, obituaries, a service directory, advertising opportunities, and valuable coupons (that when used actually have the potential to pay for the cost of your subscription) — not to mention delivering the paper to your door.

Reporters are out in the field every day gathering important information about local government, schools, crime, business, transportation, people's accomplishments, and much more. The information is then edited, placed on pages by designers, and transferred to plates ready to be printed on our large presses.

Once off the presses, the paper slides to the mailroom where it is sorted and distributed to drivers who deliver it to area stores, gas station convenience marts, and people's homes. Papers are also sent to subscribers by mail.

Each day also features an electronic version of the Gloucester Daily Times, making it available to the public in time for the morning breakfast routine. And our website, gloucestertimes.com, is updated regularly throughout the day.

While putting out a daily newspaper is, of course, a labor of love for us, it still is not cheap.

Like so many others, we are dealing with substantial increases in costs of materials and labor that are necessary to keep the newspaper strong. For example, the cost of the paper we print your newspaper on is up well more than 30% over last year — and that's just one example.

So, like most businesses, we have a choice to make:

We can do nothing and eventually go out of business. We could reduce staffing levels across the board and keep the price the same, which undoubtedly will have an impact on the quality of our coverage. Or we can increase the price slightly and keep a high-quality product with the necessary resources available to us.

No one likes a price hike. But keep in mind the cost of a daily newspaper is still less than a cup of coffee.

We appreciate our readers and community, and we will continue to strive each day to serve you to the best of our ability. And we thank you for your strong support of the Gloucester Daily Times throughout the years, and as we move forward .