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Status update

I would like to thank everyone for their support over the past six weeks, to offer some additional information about the new Citizen weekly and to address some common questions about availability and distribution.
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I would like to thank everyone for their support over the past six weeks, to offer some additional information about the new Citizen weekly and to address some common questions about availability and distribution.

Unfortunately, there is no home delivery option for The Citizen if you currently don't receive that service. In the city neighbourhoods where we have a carrier to provide that service, those residents receive The Citizen delivered to their home before 6 p.m. Thursday. For areas where we don't have carriers, we're directing people who want the paper to find them in one of the hundreds of boxes around the city. They are also available at our office at 505 Fourth Ave., as well as at our press building at 145 Brunswick St.

We're working to get more boxes out into the community and we're also working to keep the popular boxes that seem to empty quickly full of newspapers. If you go to pick up a paper at one of the black boxes and it's empty, please call us at 250-562-2441 and let us know.

If you've been grabbing multiple copies to deliver to others in your neighbourhood or to friends and relatives who can't easily get to one of the boxes, thank you.

If you've been grabbing multiple copies each week because newsprint makes great starter in a fireplace or wood stove, please don't. You're denying your neighbours their Citizen and their flyers. If you really want some extra newsprint to start your fires, please stop by at our office and we'll give you what you need. If you must take from the box, could you do it on Monday or Tuesday, please, by taking what is left of the previous week's edition.

As you've all seen, the Citizen weekly is filled with local news, sports and features but it's missing some things that were in the daily newspaper. There are no comics because the comics cost us thousands of dollars per month and it makes no business sense to offer those comics in a free newspaper. We have a crossword, a Sudoku and the horoscopes. We don't have stocks or currencies. We have all of our local columnists. We don't have the Canucks or the standings from the NHL or the CFL or the NBA. We have stories on the Cougars, the Spruce Kings, the Timberwolves and high school sports.

In other words, we're focusing on Prince George more than ever.

We've had some hiccups along the way, for sure. The paper hasn't looked the best at times. It hasn't been well distributed at times. It has shown up in the boxes as a mashed mess sometimes. We're working to resolve all of those issues as best we can and I appreciate your patience. It will get better with each weekly edition as more of these issues become worked out.

Lastly, I specifically want to thank the residents who took part in our voluntary pay program, either using what was left as part of your subscription or trusting us with your hard-earned money to continue to support local journalism. I'm sorry we weren't available to offer you home delivery as a benefit of taking part in voluntary pay but I hope you enjoy the significant savings from local businesses that comes with voluntarily paying for your Citizen.

We know we haven't been perfect but that hasn't been for lack of effort, particularly from the great team here at The Citizen. We're doing our very best to bring you the best weekly newspaper we can each Thursday.

- Publisher Colleen Sparrow