The Maui News has reversed course and will use carriers for newspaper home delivery after all.
It also will retain its Sunday edition after announcing in a front-page publisher’s note to readers Tuesday that it is rescinding its recent decision to use the U.S. Postal Service for home delivery instead of newspaper carriers.
The planned move to the Postal Service, which would have led to readers receiving their newspapers later in the day, had been scheduled to begin Nov. 13 as part of a cost-cutting move by the newspaper.
“We have heard from literally hundreds of subscribers who have repeatedly told us that they start every day with The Maui News,” Publisher Joe Bradley said in his note.
“We want all of you to know that we are listening … and we are reacting to your overwhelming opinion to keep carrier delivery so you can read the paper every morning.”
Bradley initially announced plans Oct. 20 to switch to mail delivery.
In Tuesday’s publisher’s note, Bradley acknowledged that the newspaper made a mistake.
“Obviously, it is the right thing to do to admit we made an error and to fix it before the change in delivery systems was implemented,” he said.
Bradley said the newspaper would look at other ways to save money.
“We haven’t settled on any one thing,” he said in a phone interview. “We thought that possibly (switching to postal delivery) would be a way to save quite a bit of money, but the response from our readers, frankly, was overwhelming. We’ve had a lot of phone calls from people saying, ‘Thank you for listening to us.’”
The Maui News, which has 72 employees, has been owned since 2000 by The Ogden Newspapers, a West Virginia-based chain with about 100 publications in
16 states.
