We see it at newspapers across the country. Editorial rooms dwindling, production and print facilities being shut down, composition and graphics being farmed out, subscription rates increasing by double-digit percentages. Newsprint itself is seeing record-high pricing while wages and the workplace environment are seeing changes that are almost impossible to keep up with.

In many communities there has been total shutdowns of news outlets, leaving areas without local newspapers. Journalism and all the local benefits and community safeguards it brings goes dark and the reporting and storytelling — perhaps taken somewhat for granted in the past — sinks to depths unimaginable even a few years ago.

Communities are left without a voice, local information gathered and presented by dedicated professional journalists exit the culture and governments face less public scrutiny.

These are just some of the challenges newspapers and journalists — and the communities they serve — are facing in the here and now.

The publications under the Bradford Publishing umbrella are not immune to these challenges. The strategies for some newspapers fit while others do not. For instance, we do not believe that the challenge can be met by simply bringing subscription prices to levels that do not realistically allow for continued readership. Many households are on fixed incomes and cannot support a 20% or higher rate increase. We do not believe in shuttering our pre-press, press and post-press operations and farming them out to a location hundreds of miles away. We do not believe in taking our graphics and creative department jobs out of the hands of our own employees.

We are, however, faced with having to deal with incredible challenges.

With that, we will begin to change the frequency and distribution days for our printed editions. As we announced last week, The Bradford Era and the Olean Times Herald are publishing their Monday editions in a digital-only format, beginning May 15. We will continue to print and deliver editions Tuesday-Saturday.

All current print edition subscribers should already have access to the e-edition. If you are unaware of how to access this edition, please call either The Bradford Era at (814) 368-3173 or the Olean Times Herald at (716) 372-3121 to speak to one of our customer service representatives and they will be glad to assist you with your questions.

The move of not printing and delivering our Monday edition while still bringing news and sports stories to Monday readers will allow Bradford Publishing to maintain local coverage for the start of a new week. Through the changes, we will maintain our commitment to being the voice of our city, towns and neighborhoods and the conduit of news and information that helps bind us all together, making our area a great place to live and work.

As ever, we appreciate the support and trust we receive from our readers and advertisers.

John H. Satterwhite, president of Bradford Publishing