The eNCR replica of the most recent print edition of National Catholic Reporter (NCR screenshot)
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In my first few weeks as NCR publisher, I've experienced a frustration I bet many of our print subscribers have also encountered: wondering just when the paper is going to show up in the mailbox!
I live just outside Boston, where our mail carrier, Joe McLaughlin, goes above and beyond to make sure the mail gets through, often right to our door on the second floor of our building.
But the delivery problems resulting from cutbacks enacted by President Donald Trump's postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, have delayed the arrival of my NCR in print — along with countless other NCR readers' — caught up in the hopelessly stalled vats moving the 472 million pieces of mail delivered each day across the U.S.
People say it's good for a company's leaders to get a personal feel for any discomfort experienced by its customers, but I'd also like to share with you a partial solution to the current delivery problem.
Every other week when NCR Art Director Toni-Ann Ortiz sends the paper off to the printer, she also helps create a digital replica of the print edition — eNCR — that's available to subscribers almost immediately.
Those of you who are not subscribers either to our print edition or to eNCR can take a look at it via this link: NCRonline.org/preview. We'll keep that link live for the next couple of weeks for you to see if you'd like to subscribe to the print or e-editions on a regular basis. You can subscribe to either edition here. (A subscription to the print edition provides access to eNCR at no extra charge.)
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If you're already subscribing the print or electronic editions, I hope you're on our list to receive a reminder when the e-edition is ready. If not, that's probably because we don't have your email address, a problem you can fix by calling Circulation Manager Jo Schierhoff at 800-333-7373 or shooting her an email at ncrsub@ncronline.org.
If you have questions about any of this — or anything else we do at NCR — please contact me at bmitchell@ncronline.org or 816-968-2259.
These are exciting times at NCR, in part because of the talented new people joining our ranks. Executive Editor Heidi Schlumpf introduced three new staffers last week and today I'd like you to help me welcome Tony Hernandez, our new director of audience engagement.
Tony Hernandez (Provided photo)
Tony succeeds Sara Wiercinski, who is leaving NCR after a decade to pursue a new career as an elementary school teacher. Sara has provided extraordinary service to the whole company — Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat as well as NCR — and we're going to miss her.
Tony is a marketing professional who has worked for Condé Nast in New York, Comcast in Philadelphia and, most recently, Madison Wells Media in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Joining NCR represents something of a homecoming for Tony, who grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, before heading off to Harvard, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in history, with honors, and later to Los Angeles, where he earned Master of Business Administration from UCLA.
A century ago, Tony's ancestors emigrated from Mexico to Kansas City's Westside neighborhood, where his great-grandmother, Nicolasa Vera, helped found the Guadalupe Center, the nation's first social services agency for Latinos.
Tony made the drive from LA to KC in August and will start work Sept. 1. Since his job is all about you — our audience — I encourage you to welcome him at thernandez@ncronline.org.
[Bill Mitchell is NCR publisher. His email address is bmitchell@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter at @bmitch.
