Moving stuff around. The Pandemic

Yesterday I posted an item about food and the Pandemic which touched upon distribution systems.  Today I'm posting on distribution systems again, but on a much more localized basis.

I'm talking about the newspaper.

I subscribe to the local newspaper, but as I've noted here several times before, that local paper contracted out the printing of the paper to a printer in Cheyenne.  I don't think that's a good thing, and of course it certainly wasn't a good thing for the printers who lost their jobs. 

Economics was the reason that this occurred.  Local papers are in trouble now days and they're doing what they can to save costs.  It calso can't help but be noted, however, that this pattern follows the American way of doing things.  Consolidation.

Since this occured the promise of the paper, that things would rarely be disrupted, haven't been true.  This past winter has been a long and hard one and delivery of the paper has been frequently disrupted. As this has occurred I've experimented with the online edition of the paper, something that's been amplified by the fact that the time the paper arrives isn't consistent.

Recently, however, I've felt weird about just handling the paper, something that normally I prefer about the print edition over the electronic edition.  That paper comes up from Cheyenne.  Laramie County has double the  number of COVID 19 cases that my county does (Teton County shares that distinction as well). 

I don't know where that paper has been or who has handled it.  It's probably okay, but I'd feel better about it if it wasn't printed in Laramie County, trucked up here, and then distributed here.

I wasn't saying much, well anything, about that at all, but yesterday my wife did. She stated that she felt the paper was "dirty", and I'm afraid in this era I feel that way now too.

So here's another one of those things that is sort of moving.  I'm a fan of print, but will I keep getting the print paper?

And this also shows the weakness of a system that favors efficiency over everything.  A century ago this community was a third of its current size and it had two papers. Yes, it didn't have the Internet, television or even radio at that time.  But it's papers weren't trucked across the state either.  We've lost something in here somewhere.