I, too, like Julie Muhlstein, have a newspaper habit. (Sunday column, “Nothing replaces a physical newspaper.”) I include reading the paper in my morning routine while getting ready for work, and when it isn’t there, my whole routine is thrown off. When I go home to visit my parents, I take my place at the table, reading and passing sections of the local paper around, even though I now live 2,000 miles away.
I have tried to be patient with the transition to the new owners of The Herald and the shuffling of the sections. Some of the changes I even like. But there are things happening that I am not happy about. When Josh O’Connor explained the reduction in the size of the daily paper due to equipment availability, there was no mention of the subscription price being revised accordingly. Still, I went along, wondering if it had been wise to move the printing of The Herald to a press that was already overloaded with several other papers.
June 16 was a turning point for me. When I called to report that I had not received my paper, I got a recorded message that I would get my Sunday paper on Monday, due to an equipment breakdown, with a mere “Sorry for the inconvenience.” I was given no choice in the matter, nor any way to protest. Nor was there any mention of compensating me for the delay. Much of the news in The Herald is old by the time I get the paper anyway, and now my stale news was going to be delivered a day later, along with the Monday paper! I had to ask myself, “How is this supposed to be acceptable?” Did these people really presume that I would have time to read two papers on Monday morning, even if I wanted to?!
We, the subscribers, should have been given the choice to receive it a day late, or forego delivery and have the price deducted from our accounts. With all that said, I have decided, after 20 years of reading The Herald, to cancel my subscription. I know that I will certainly go through a period of newspaper withdrawal, and it will be difficult for a time while I adjust my morning routine, but I cannot justify continuing with this apparent decline in product and service. Maybe I’ll just sleep in an extra 20 minutes in the morning.
Cathy Stevens
Everett
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