The holidays are upon us, which means people are busy with festivities, including family gatherings. Time seems all the more precious.
At the Leader, we recognize how valuable your time is, which is why we will publish only once a week during the next two weeks. Those two newspapers will be larger than usual. We hope delivering one larger newspaper instead of two slim ones will be more convenient for you.
In case you didn't see the notice on the front page, here's the scoop: The first of these two larger papers will be published Thursday, Dec. 28. That day's Leader will contain everything you normally find in the Tuesday and Thursday paper: news, opinion, business news, our Region page, outdoors news, sports, arts and entertainment features and calendars, our Community and Faith pages, Lives Remembered and The Public Record. The Leader will not be published Tuesday, Dec. 26.
The following week, we will follow a similar schedule. The Leader on Thursday, Jan. 4, will contain all the week's news in one package. It will also contain our annual Year in Review and Passages, a tribute to those from our area who died during the past year.
We appreciate hearing from readers who have comments about this temporary schedule change. If you have a complaint or suggestion, please call Publisher Matt McMillan at (320) 234-4143, or me at (320) 234-4156.
On the Web site, in the paper
The Leader's recently revamped Web site, www.hutchinsonleader.com, is more interactive than ever. Each day, readers comment on the stories we publish online. The Web site is an open forum for the expression of public views on issues of the day. It's the same as writing a letter that's published on this page.
Those who leave comments are asked to register with the Web site. The registration agreement explains that all comments posted on the Web site may also be published in the print version of the newspaper.
We have already published a handful of these comments on this page, and we plan to publish more. We are reminding readers of the registration agreement so they know that anything they post at www.hutchinsonleader. com might also appear here in print.
Guidelines for cheers
Cheers and jeers have been a popular feature on the Hutchinson Leader's Opinion page for many years. We recently received questions from cheers writers wanting to know what we will publish and what we won't.
2) Please do not name businesses. And we ask that you honor the spirit of this rule. Occasionally, we receive cheers from readers who won't name a business, but they will want to thank "the local store," a store owner or a store employee. Some readers have told us that these types of cheers create mystery more than anything else. So here's our rule again: The Leader does not publish cheers or jeers that applaud or complain about a business, whether the business is named or not.
We also do not publish letters that contain the names of businesses, unless a business is involved in some kind of public issue of vital community interest. For example, we will publish a letter from a reader who wants to comment on a business' request for a conditional-use permit or variance. Such a request is a matter that concerns the entire community and is considered in a public forum. It's fair game for those who want to comment.
3) Include your full name, city of residence and daytime phone number. Don't worry, we won't publish your full address or phone number. We simply need them for verification purposes.
4) Have fun with it. Cheers and jeers are a great way to praise, thank and criticize others in a constructive way.
Thank you, and cheers to you for reading the Leader's Opinion page.
Get your Kouba book in town
Oops! Last week we reported in this space that Les Kouba's book, "The Legacy of Les C. Kouba," is not available in Hutchinson. Delores Saar visited yesterday to let us know she is selling it, plus Kouba prints and memorabilia, at Main Street Antiques, 122 Main St. N.
Editorials are written by Publisher Matt McMillan and Editor Doug Hanneman. They can be reached at mcmillan@hutchinsonleader.com, or hanneman@hutchinsonleader.com.