By Christy Solo – Editor
By the time you read this the Upper Rogue Independent will be online!
So we thought we’d go over some basics again and answer some questions we’ve received from readers.
We’ve already entered all the active subscribers into the website including the current expiration date for your subscription.
All you need to do to start enjoying the URI online is to create your username and log in information at UpperRogueIndependent.com
To access your online subscription, go to the above site and click the “My Account” button in the upper right corner. There you will set your username and password.
Our biggest goal with our website design was to make it easy for readers to access the content they love best – quickly!
And yes! Your favorites (as inquired about by readers) are all still there, puzzles, local events, Wayne’s World, Crawlies, weekly ads – all of it.
A scroll down the Home Page and a “click” will take you where you want to go.
Of course we want your feedback on whether we’ve hit the “I can find what I want to read quickly” mark!
We will also be creating a new Facebook account. We’ll give you that information in our Jan. 21 edition.
Yes, there are TWO old, dead Facebook accounts for the URI started by former owners who did not pass along their administrator login information. We’ve tried repeatedly to work with Facebook to delete those accounts to prevent people from being confused and frustrated by them, but per Facebook there’s nothing they or we can do.
That said – the online version is still a work in progress. We didn’t want to go live with a “blank page” as it were, so we’ve uploaded the year-end edition, and we’ll upload all of December 2025, at least, even as we continue to upload new editions each Wednesday.
If you – or a friend or relation, etc. – want to get a new subscription – go to the “Subscribe” button, also in the upper right area of the screen.
As a reminder, we will print the balance of our January editions in addition to our new website. Beginning with the Feb. 4 edition we will be online only.
But – there will be a “newsletter” version available on the website (starting in February) so you can print out your puzzles, recipes, whatever it is you want to print.
As to other FAQs – the main question we’ve been asked is, “Can’t you do another fundraiser” to keep printing the URI along with the online version.
The bottom line (literally) is…we can’t. We’d never raise enough money. The loss of one of our largest advertisers truly has made printing and mailing impossible.
It costs $462.25 per week to have the paper printed. This is actually low, other area printers said they would charge us $600 per week (and that was a pre-tariff quote) – why we’ve stayed with our current company.
We then pay another $67 per week to mail the papers out – that’s with our USPS periodical mailing discount.
Simply put, a one-time fund raiser can’t replace a consistent source of advertising income.
We do still need more advertisers. Going online is far from free! It’s just manageable. Now is the best time to start advertising with the URI.
At no additional cost above our printed ad rates, new and existing advertisers will now get full color ads which will link directly to their websites – and a much larger reach! Tourists can now easily check out the local newspaper before coming into town, the same for people looking to relocate to our area.
Online is the only way we can charge ahead into our 50th year of publication and continue to bring you: Your friends. Your neighbors. Your news.
