An Especially Trying Week

As most of our readers have probably figured out by now, I typically write my column on Tuesday (sometimes early Wednesday) for that week’s paper. Such was the case last week; my column was written before disaster befell us here at the CV Weekly.

Last Wednesday, in mid-afternoon, I received a notice from our printers down in Ontario that their printing presses were down … meaning that my paper would be delayed in getting printed and brought up here to the Crescenta Valley for distribution. In fact, their best guess was that I wouldn’t get the papers until mid-afternoon to midnight on Thursday.

For anyone who knows me, on Wednesdays I’m not a very nice person. While I might start the day only mildly stressed, as our deadlines approach (the time we have to upload the files to the Ontario printer) I get more and more tense – and more (shall I say?) snippy. So getting the news mid-day on Wednesday that I wouldn’t have a paper to distribute that night/early on Thursday morning (I mean 1 a.m. early) sent me into a tailspin.

It was really too late in the day to find another printer. I decided that we would finish writing the paper and getting the files to the printer. Hopefully on Thursday we’d have a better idea of when the papers would be here for delivery. Our office manager Rachelle let our delivery people know of the change and found who wouldn’t be able to deliver on Thursday night/Friday morning. And of course I would have to let our readers know in any way I could that the newspaper, for the first time in 12 years, would be late. Oh, how I dreaded spreading that news.

 I immediately went onto the social media platforms where CV Weekly has a presence: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Nextdoor. I tried to remember the email addresses of the many subscribers who have loyally supported us over the years so I could send a personal note (my head – and heart – was in a fog and I know that I missed some). After all that and the files were sent, there was nothing more I could do. After grabbing dinner with Mary O’Keefe, I went home where I slept fitfully.

But fortune smiled on us. Around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday morning the papers arrived; they were only late by a couple of hours. Though the papers would still be delivered late (we aim for all newspapers to be delivered by 6 a.m. on Thursday morning) I was so grateful that the problem had been resolved in Ontario and the newspapers would be in our readers hands no later than midnight on Thursday.

The best part of the entire fiasco, though, was the overwhelming support by our readers. Comments ranging from “No problem” to “We love you, Robin, and the CV Weekly” were replied to the posts I had put up on social media. I also received notes from readers asking what they could do to help; one even offered to deliver papers if that was needed.

Rachelle, on her own, on Thursday morning called just about every subscriber of ours to tell them approximately when their paper would arrive.

I share this with you because I often brag about how great our readers are and last week was the best example I could ever come up with to illustrate that point.

To everyone, I apologize again for the delay and thank you all for your support and understanding.