Changes made to entertainment section help preserve local job

I grew up with Garfield and Peanuts, both the cartoons and the comic strips that have been a staple for newspapers for decades.

I could certainly connect last week with Garfield’s musings on the value of a good night’s sleep, but not overlooking the “noble nap,” since they came on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Woodstock’s unsuccessful attempts to play tennis also made me smile, not just because it was of the humor but because of how relatable it all is.

These characters aren’t just for entertainment, those relatable moments also offer connection.

We recognize the value of these in our daily pages.

But after weighing many options, we have come to the conclusion that the Daily American Republic has to make a change.

We’ve decided to stop our subscriptions to the color comics which inserted in our Saturday paper. We will continue to offer our daily black-and-white comics page.

These subscriptions come at a premium cost.

This change, while difficult, allows us to invest that savings in the equivalent of a part-time local position. It keeps the money we were paying to those national companies, here, in a local job.

Small businesses across the country have seen the same cost increases as households.

It has left us all looking for ways to preserve jobs while juggling more expensive operating costs.

I’ll be sad to see the color comics leave our pages but weighed against saving a local job, it’s not such a bitter pill for me.

We will post an additional entertainment page with our Tuesday online edition as part of this change. The digital-only content is available to all of our subscribers through the online edition and will have the crossword, crypto quote, Dear Annie, horoscopes and Monday comics.

Online access to all of our content is available to all print subscribers at no additional charge. If you don’t currently have that set up with your account, we’re happy to help. Just contact our circulation department at 573-785-1414.

We are also going to continue to look at the daily comics we offer and the possibility of improving that content by either adding or swapping items. If there is something you’d like to see us add, or even to make sure we keep, please let us know. You can contact me with any questions, feedback or concerns.

Thank you for reading the Daily American Republic and supporting community journalism in our region.

Donna Farley is the editor of the Daily American Republic. She can be reached at dfarley@darnews.com.