Contemplating change is never easy, especially when it affects thousands of people and impacts habits developed over many years.

That certainly sums up our thought process as the leadership team weighed moving our delivery from the traditional system of newspaper carriers to begin partnering with the U.S. Postal Service.

If you are reading this, then that means you must have found your newspaper in your mailbox today rather than in your newspaper tube. Hopefully, the front-page story, Frequently Asked Questions supplement and this column help clarify the decision and what it means to you, our readers.

The bottom line is this decision was made to best serve our current — and future — customers.

The distribution change will maximize efficiency as mail carriers already visit every house in Clark County every single day — rain, snow, heat, sleet or shine.

This allows us to reallocate some critical resources and focus investments into better news coverage for our community.

Our singular goal is on better informing the public of everything going on in Winchester and Clark County.

With that in mind, the change to a night-time production cycle and morning distribution will allow many subscribers to receive their newspaper earlier in the day. It also means those purchasing their newspaper at area gas stations and convenience stores can start their day with The Winchester Sun.

The final component is that The Sun will return to its traditional Saturday weekend edition, a change that takes effect Jan. 21. Moving forward, we will distribute a weekend edition every Saturday.

We certainly considered the impact this has on our newspaper’s carriers, many of whom have provided great service to Sun readers for years. We appreciate all the hard work and everything they have done in getting the newspaper to our subscribers.

At the end of the day, best serving our readers topped all other considerations.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call or email me (contact info below) or reach out to anyone on our staff.

The world is changing at a dizzying rate and all businesses must adapt, change and evolve. The newspaper industry and The Winchester Sun are no different.

Our goal remains the same as it has been for the past 130 years: to serve our community and provide the best source of information for Winchester and Clark County. This change is a critical part of being able to continue to do that for the next 130.

Michael Caldwell is publisher of The Winchester Sun and Winchester Living magazine. He can be reached at (859) 759-0095 or by email at mike.caldwell@winchestersun.com.