No, we didn’t send you
the wrong paper this week

To ensure that everyone has complete, accurate, up-to-date information during the COVID-19 pandemic, we this week are producing an expanded joint edition, combining all the news from the Marion County Record, Hillsboro Star-Journal, and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin in a single, much larger newspaper.

Space limitations last week prevented us from publishing all pandemic-related stories in some of our papers. Our expanded joint edition will ensure that everyone gets all the news.

With most purely local school, sports, and civic events canceled, nearly all of our stories are of countywide interest, and this week’s joint issue reflects that.

Saving time by not having to produce separate designs for each paper also means more time for our staff to gather and present the county’s most complete and compelling news coverage.

In case you were worried, newspapers are safe. The ink and paper we use tests out in independent labs as 100% sterile, and other lab tests have shown that viruses cannot last long on newsprint even if it deposited on it by letter carriers or others who might handle it.

During the crisis, we’re also delivering free copies of the paper from time to time in residential areas of various communities in the county and are offering free, no-obligation, 13-week subscriptions to all Marion County residents who have not subscribed in the past three months. Sign up for free home delivery using the form here, or save a stamp and sign up online at http://mnks.us/free.

We’re all in this together. We hope these steps will keep everyone informed and help the entire county through the crisis.