Our View: We Hate To Do It...

Every week, we’re thankful for our loyal subscribers, whose subscriptions help make possible the journalism we provide in every edition. And we’ve worked hard to ensure that The Chronicle remains affordable and as accessible as possible to our readers.

 Earlier this month, we learned from our printing company that because of tariffs on Canadian goods, the newsprint that we use will be increasing in price. That represents a significant cost center for our small business.

Starting with our April 3 edition, we will raise our newsstand price from $1.50 to $2. Effective immediately, our one-year and electronic-only subscriptions are increasing by $10, with two-year subscriptions increasing by $20. It’s a modest price increase — the Chronicle is still a far better value to subscribers than our competitors offer — but it’s a change that we do not make lightly.

 This is an uncertain time for hometown newspapers, and it’s not all about the cost of newsprint. Like many small papers, we rely entirely on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver our editions each week, and there are concerns that the current administration will scale back or eliminate the program that we use to send periodicals. If that happens, we’ll need to raise our rates again.

 Ensuring that local news is accessible to as many people as possible isn’t just part of our business strategy; it’s a core value. We continue to offer many stories for free on our website, as well as free email news products, but we rely on our subscribers and advertisers to allow us to continue doing the important work of local journalism.

 Thank you for your continued support.