PEORIA, IL -- Print may be thought obsolete by some, but not me. Here is my email to Peoria Journal Star publisher Ken Mauser today, after three days without the print edition of the Peoria Journal Star:
We have not had a paper Sunday, Monday or today. Our street was cleared yesterday.
We called the voice mail number, 309/686-3161, and because we have missed so many papers we are sent to an operator, and placed on endless hold which ties up our land line. Plus they never answer. (How about an option where they call us back?)
When we go to the circulation website, we're asked for a password that does not match the password we use for the PJS website. That's nuts. We dont know what it is and dont care to screw up further our computer's password system by getting another one for the PJS circulation, which likely will require yet another one for PJS.com when we access it (which is rarely, since it's full of obnoxious pop up ads (we and others boycott those advertisers) and the stories are hard to find sometimes.)
So now what? We want these 3 papers, even late. Not credits, the papers.
How do we get them, as well as future papers? Do we have to put our sign back in the yard (not easy, because everything is frozen.)
Or should we just place our account on vacation whenever a storm is threatened?
People ask me constantly what has happened to the PJS. Now I can't even tell them if the papers are no longer delivered. (So much for outsourcing the delivery! This never used to happen.)
-- Elaine Hopkins
In addition, I wonder how many advertisers know that many newspapers are not being delivered!
UPDATE 1/8/14: The PJS for Monday, Tues and Wed. were delivered today. A kind friend had already shared the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday newspapers with us on Tuesday, for which we are grateful. No response from Mauser, though.
We have tremendous problems with weekend deliveries; missing 1 out of every 4 is common. Rarely get delivery before 8:00am. Been at same address for 34 years!!
Posted by: Jim Runkle | January 08, 2014 at 02:37 PM