March 28, 2024

A letter from the editor

ewspaper office to close permanently

Dear readers,

We’re all in uncertain, precarious times right now as a nation, state and small towns. We all know that. Our fast-paced world came to a screeching halt for awhile, now we’re trying to work together to find a new normal while still keeping everyone healthy.

A loss in advertising revenue over time and the shock of the pandemic have been coupled with rising costs of printing newspapers. That has taken its toll on us and our bottom line much like it would for any other small business. Therefore, our staff learned recently that the difficult decision has been made to execute cost saving measures and close the Adair County Free Press and Fontanelle Observer office in Greenfield permanently.

Both of our our local newspapers have rich histories and a lot of followers. We will still print them both each week as they have been. Newspapers in much larger communities than ours — Centerville, Knoxville and Pella are a few examples right here in Iowa — have ceased to exist permanently during this pandemic. I’m thankful ours won’t be like those.

You’ll still have a place to read up on the action of our local leaders at a school, city, county and state level. You’ll still get to see whose 60th anniversary it is and who won the ballgame the other night.

I’ve enjoyed our journey together in the newspapers over the last two and a half years since I arrived here, and I’m grateful that gets to continue. My wife Kilee and I will continue living in Greenfield and you will still continue to see us and other members of the newspaper’s team at many events and meetings around the county. Our staff will be transitioning to working remotely from home. It will be a good lesson for us all that neither creativity nor the news are bound to four walls.

This news is really sad because I know that it’s hard to lose the brick and mortar presence of a newspaper in a community, but I have full confidence that our team will do our best to be out in the community as much as we can gathering the news and talking to the business owners we serve.

If you should ever need to get ahold of me or send a news item to me, please don’t hesitate to email me at cnelson@adairpress.com. I will still be able to be reached at our regular phone number, 641-743-6121, on a work cell phone.

Supporting small businesses like newspapers, mom and pop shops, restaurants and more are vitally important right now, so let me personally thank you for choosing us as your news source here in the county. Please consider subscribing to the local newspapers if you don't already by calling Monica or Tresa at 641-782-2141. Please consider trying to advertise with us, if you're a small business owner, when this thing shakes out. Right now, you can do so by contacting Craig Mittag at cmittag@crestonnews.com.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we’ll get through this together. Our team really appreciate your support as we bring you your local newspapers each week.

In this together,

Caleb Nelson

News Editor of the Adair County Free Press and Fontanelle Observer