Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Progress report

Back to the blog after weeks of assorted business, some of it the putting-out-fires variety.

Here's another report on our recent production shifts:

Home delivery has been spotty to some (not most, I'm happy to say) subscribers. We know about it. We're upset about it. And we're working closely with our new distributor to fix it ASAP. We're seeing improvements. But it won't be good enough until everyone gets our newspaper on time, as promised. Best way to contact us is by e-mail at circulation@freemanonline.com. Include your name, address and phone number and tell us what's up (or what isn't).

Production in Troy has gone quite well, thank you very much. But there was that period of several days earlier this month when the Troy press suffered a major mechanical failure, which had us scrambling first to the press in Albany, then to New Haven. Stuff happens. But we're back in Troy and all systems are go.

We pushed back our deadline an hour to get the Jets-Steelers game in Monday's paper. We'll continue to make adjustments as feasible to provide as much late content as we can. Meanwhile, our website has more late and breaking news, sports, features, pictures, video, etc., than ever. And January, with several days to go, already is our best month ever for unique visitors to the site. Remember, we don't charge for access to dailyfreeman.com; we want you to visit early and often. It's our advertisers' business with us that subsidizes this endeavor. So don't look at their ads and pop-ups and videos as intrusions. They're paying the freight for your free access. Patronize the advertisers and make sure you tell them where you saw their online promotions.

Lots of other exciting things happening, including our Community Media Lab, which had a soft launch at the end of last year. Much more activity is planned as soon as we complete a bit of rehab in our conference room.