In response to the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Banner Graphic and the other Rust Communications publications in Indiana will be temporarily cutting back to two production days each week.
These are uncertain times for all businesses, including newspapers, and the Rust Indiana family of publications -- which also includes The Brazil Times and the Greene County Daily World -- is taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can continue to serve the public through the current health crisis and beyond.
The management team wishes to ensure our readers that, even with the reduction in publication days, our editorial department will remain at full staffing levels, continuing to update www.bannergraphic.com several times daily.
Specifically, the newspaper will be printed each Tuesday and Friday in the coming weeks.
“We are going to re-evaluate the business situation at the end of every month,” Rust Indiana Senior General Manager Jeanne Burris said. “We are in the same boat as other small businesses and are trying to get to the other side of this financially.”
A major reason for the need to scale back publication days is the loss of grocery store inserts, which we understand to be a necessary step for our partners in the grocery business, given the unprecedented amount of business they have seen in recent weeks.
“It’s understandable for grocery stores to take this step when they can’t guarantee that the items in their inserts will be on shelves,” Burris said. “Likewise, plenty of mom and pop stores have had to cut services or close altogether.”
Like these and so many other businesses, the management of the Banner Graphic is making choices that are not easy in order to ensure the paper’s continued viability.
“We have to make tough choices, but we are committed to continuing to gather the news on COVID-19 and other matters important to you,” she added.
With that in mind, the Banner Graphic will continue to make stories related to the COVID-19 pandemic available free of charge at www.bannergraphic.com, not simply to subscribers. These free stories cover not only daily updates on the spread of the virus, but also stories of how local businesses, non-profits, governments, schools and other organizations are responding to the challenges of these unique times.
It’s one important step the BG team feels it can take in partnering with the rest of the community as we face these challenges together.
“We are committed during this unprecedented time not to raise our subscription rates,” Burris said. “Your subscription will continue to provide you with 24/7 online news and two print editions a week.
“We are all in this together,” Burris added. “Our commitment to the community remains the same.”
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