We’re back to a 51-week publication schedule this year. We will not have a printed edition Thursday, Dec. 26.
This was a case I made to publisher Jason Brummond back in August as we were looking to the year ahead.
When I started at the Sun back in 2016, I encountered the idea of no newspaper the week of Christmas, and it was a bit of a shock to me. I was used to the Algona Upper Des Moines (nee Kossuth County Advance’s) 52-week printing schedule.
But there are differences between those papers. In Kossuth County, we were the county newspaper, not just the Algona newspaper. We had eight or more communities we actively covered alongside Algona. There was always news to be found, even in what might be weeks with no school, just by having that many small communities and their holiday festivals or occurrences or county wide events. I was usually taking vacation with my family in that timeframe as well.
After living here for a few years, I better understood more why the decision was made for the Sun.
The time around the holidays is one of the slowest periods of news for these two communities. With both of our schools out of session for winter break, Cole Library on holiday hours, and the closures/limited hours of many businesses in town, the communities actively take a breather for the holidays.
Many of our governmental bodies have fewer meetings. No high school sports for a week means Ryan and I are scrambling to find feature stories and other activities for those pages (why I actively hope for at least one significant snow every year so we can feature Sledding Hill).
From a logistical standpoint, it makes sense as well. By shifting to a single issue for those combined two weeks, you have one less holiday you are trying to fight around “so when are we setting deadlines so people anywhere in production are not forced to work Christmas Day or New Year’s?”
When Woodward Communications asked us to shift to a 52-week newspaper, we did.
As an editor for the past three years, however, the decades of previous history of not having an issue that week of Dec. 26 meant a lot of stressing about those back-to-back early deadlines. It hasn’t given a lot of time with family, with friends, or much of a breather for an editor to recharge.
I am doing something I haven’t done in a few years because of that 52-week publication schedule and being a mostly oneman band – I’m actively taking vacation time from Tuesday, Dec. 17 to Dec. 25, and working from home Dec. 26 through Dec. 29. I have a stack of movies on streaming or physical media that I’m trying to get through before the end of the year, a niece and nephew who want to go to the theaters for more escapades of a blue hedgehog and possibly a lion king…
I have plans to cover Lisbon’s holiday events Dec. 20 and Lisbon’s Dec. 23 council meeting amidst my vacation, and any breaking news I hear about.
I’m also taking a breather and recharging my batteries with the rest of this community to be ready for the New Year ahead.