Scott Swanson
The last couple of months have proved interesting as we’ve adjusted to a new printer, which we told you about in late June.
As could be expected, there have been some ups and downs in the process as the Herald and News newspaper in Klamath Falls has worked to adjust to our needs and we’ve adapted to the new production schedule that we are following.
One of those changes has been a later delivery, as you all know.
That presents a problem for us in a number of areas, in terms of news coverage.
One is Tuesday evening meetings – the City Council, the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Board of Directors both meet on Tuesday evenings, which means that our coverage of their activities has to wait, what is it now, nine days before it gets into your mailbox if you live in Sweet Home.
But that’s life in the post-COVID world of printing. Having once lived in a much larger community that didn’t even have regular news coverage, better-late-than-never is definitely true – though it hurts me to say that.
The other “problem” is football. Football is a unique sport among those contested at Sweet Home High School because of the level of community interest and the fact that it occurs only once a week – nearly always on Friday night.
There are, of course, other sports that also can occur about that frequently: cross-country, track, swimming, golf, wrestling. But they are often contested on different days and they don’t necessarily fill Husky Field. (Having had my own daughters compete in three of those “other sports,” I am certainly not discounting them. Those are simply the facts.)
If readers have to wait six days to read about last week’s football game, though, that can be a problem.
After all, this is supposed to be news.
So here’s what we’ve come up with, at least while our production schedule is what it is.
We are going to post a story about the game and photos, if we are able, by noon Monday on our website, sweethomenews.com. If you look there now, you’ll find a report of last Friday’s game against Madras (a heart-breaking overtime loss for the Huskies) at http://www.sweethomenews.com/story/2022/08/31/sports/madras-avenges-previous-football-loss-to-huskies-overtime-with-26-20-ot-win/26253.html.
But that’s not all. We plan to, with coaches’ cooperation, update that for the paper edition, including a less in-depth summary of the previous game along with a preview of the upcoming game which, for most of our readers, will be the day after they get the paper. That’s on page 9 of today’s issue.
We’re still open to opportunities to improve the situation, both in terms of coverage and our newspaper production, but for now, this seems like the best way to serve our readers under the circumstances in which we find ourselves.