Special Delivery

As off-Island subscribers to this newspaper know only too well, the U.S. Postal Service has been in decline for many years. With subscribers in 47 states and several foreign countries, we often hear horror stories of papers not arriving for days or weeks after they are mailed.

So this week’s news that the postal service wants to lay off 30,000 workers and close more than half its mail processing centers, including seven in Massachusetts, simply added insult to injury. The national headlines were about new delays in first class mail, but delivery of periodicals under the plan would also go from bad to worse.

We’re sorry to see this proposal, as much for the harm it will do other small businesses and individuals on the Island as for the Gazette. At least for publishers, the Internet provides an efficient way to deliver news and information to customers, even as many of us still prefer the tactile satisfaction of reading a broadsheet. For others, the mail remains the only economical way to send and receive essential goods.

To our loyal readers and advertisers: we remain firmly committed to producing the Gazette in print. Despite these rapidly changing times for publishing, we are constantly reminded that Vineyarders still want and value a newspaper as distinctive as the Island it covers.

We’re also embracing technology and new forms of social media for those who prefer to get their news digitally – some regularly and some only when they are off-Island. Subscribers to our print newspaper are already entitled to online access to the entirety of its content, so you can read the Gazette online while you wait for your copy to arrive in the mail. Call us if you need help accessing the site. And in the coming months, we’ll be making improvements to the site to make it a better experience for our readers.

We’ll also be joining with others to urge Congress and the postal service to seek ways to address its funding problems in ways that won’t undercut the very reasons it exists.