The Columbia Star newspaper is completed every Wednesday at 5 pm and emailed to our printer in Aiken. The newspapers are delivered to our office at 8 am every Thursday. Those destined to our subscribers are delivered to the US Post Office Bulk Mail Distribution Center in South Congaree by noon every Thursday.

We have been assured time and time again that The Columbia Star will be delivered to our subscribers’ mailbox Friday. Over the 43 years of publishing The Columbia Star , service by the US Post Office has slowly deteriorated. We are getting more and more calls of complaint from our subscribers who do not receive their newspaper on Friday, the day of publication.

Our complaints to the US Postal Service have required hours of time and pages of forms. The result? The service gets worse. On October 19, I received my own editions for October 7 and October 14, as did many of you. One paper was five days late, the other 12 days late.

Believe me, if we had a choice we would take it. However, the law says a newspaper must be delivered by Periodical Class of the US Postal Service. There is no competition.

We at The Columbia Star work hard to cover the news of our community and publish it for your pleasure. It is the USPS, not us, who is falling down on the job. We apologize to you, our readers, and hope you understand the government is slowing down the news. Government regulations, government bureaucracy, and government inefficiency keeps The Columbia Star from arriving in your mailbox on the promised day.

Warner M. Montgomery

Publisher

The Columbia Star