Most avid newspaper readers are well aware of the significant changes our industry has undergone over the past decade.
Many of those changes have stemmed from the 24/7 cycle driven by the Internet as news organizations, including ours, have loaded up the Web and helped to satisfy your thirst for real-time news.
As technology has provided the convenience of reading the Mirror in the palm of your hand, reader habit has changed. That's challenged the print industry.
You might have seen where some papers have eliminated their print editions and gone to digital-only products.
Other newspapers have decided to stop seven-day delivery of their print publications in favor of three larger papers per week.
One of those papers is The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, one of the most recognized newspapers in the country and certainly in the state thanks largely to its coverage of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, work that landed a Pulitzer Prize.
Beginning in January, the Patriot will be delivered only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and will focus on serving its readership through its website.
As we gather our families to hoist a drumstick on this Thanksgiving, one of the many things I'm thankful for is that the Mirror is not planning to go that route now or in the foreseeable future.
While the Web has allowed us to draw more readers than ever - transplanted Altoonans spread out all over the country and especially the winter snowbirds combing the obituary page from Florida - we still believe strongly in the print product.
And we believe it's most effective when hits your door or newspaper box daily and, as one of life's simple pleasures, is delivered to the kitchen table while the steam is still coming off that first cup of coffee.
We know there are days when we're not as thick and robust as we were in the 1960s, when the paper was so wide that it covered your picnic table.
Keep in mind we didn't have a Sunday edition and didn't print on six holidays, including this one. That's 58 fewer papers per year, but we feel answering the bell daily has made us better.
Yes, like any other business, in order to position ourselves to handle the economic realities we all face, we had a price increase last month, going to 75 cents on the newsstand - our first weekday single-copy price increase in 20 years.
But we're thankful and proud to be winding down year No. 138.
We're thankful to have management that still values being able to chronicle the history of Altoona, Blair County and five counties that border - the breaking news, the local sports, the human-interest features and the stories that matter to you.
We're thankful to have a staff of editors, reporters, photographers, page designers - and, yes, all of us help load the web, too - who enthusiastically fill up our sections with local and national news, entertainment, religion, sports, you name it.
We're thankful for our advertisers, whose support allows us to do our jobs, and our carriers who are delivering the biggest paper of the year today.
Most of all, though, we're thankful for you, the reader.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Mirror Managing Editori Neil Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.
