Have you noticed an improvement in the print quality of our paper in the past two weeks? So have we. That is because the Alliance Times-Herald recently ended their print contract with the Scottsbluff Star Herald and is printing their publication in Rapid City, S.D.
Shaun Friedrichsen, Director of Operations, said quality was the driving force behind the change.
“For over a year, we kept noticing problems with the print quality of our paper,” said Friedrichsen. “We put a lot of work into our publication, and to have the print quality suffer was just disheartening. I know I would look at our online edition and compare it to our print edition, and it was almost like seeing two different products.
“Our staff attempted to work through the issues with the Star Herald, but oftentimes it felt like our concerns were not being listened to,” Friedrichsen said. “We believed our readers and our advertisers deserve so much better than what they were getting when we printed in Scottsbluff.”
The Alliance Times-Herald opted to have their product printed by the Rapid City Journal. Friedrichsen notes that the move has already been beneficial.
“It’s like night and day,” said Friedrichsen. “Last week, I was going through our papers from last year so that they could be bound, and I couldn’t help but compare them to what we are seeing now with the Rapid City Journal. The staff at the Rapid City Journal has been so helpful and willing to listen to our concerns. I’m very grateful for their effort, and the amount of care they show our product.”
With the shift to printing in Rapid City, the deadlines at the Alliance Times-Herald have had to change. The deadline for classifieds, legals, advertising and news items is Monday at 4:30 p.m. The deadline for obituaries is 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Subscribers who live outside of Alliance may experience some delays in receiving their paper through the mail, though staff at the Alliance Times-Herald is working on a way to resolve this issue.
The Alliance Times-Herald staff apologizes for any inconvenience and thanks their subscribers for their patience during their transition.
The Alliance Times-Herald is a small, family-owned newspaper that has been serving Box Butte County for the past 133 years.