From the Publisher: Printing the Navajo Times again is a blessing

Posted by Tommy Arviso Jr. | Jul 9, 2020 | CORONAVIRUS, From the Publisher |

After two weeks of not printing the Navajo Times and only publishing an online issue, we are happy to announce that we are back in full operation starting this week. We will publish a full-color print copy of our July 9 issue and it will be circulated to all of our newsstands throughout the Four Corners area starting early Thursday morning.

Because of safety and health issues related to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Navajo Times Publishing Company had to close down its office building and printing operation for 14 days. As a result we were able to only provide online publications of the June 25 and July 2 issues of the Navajo Times newspaper.

Tommy Arviso, Jr., CEO and Publisher, Navajo Times Publishing Co., Inc.

I can assure you that we did everything that we could to still provide as much news coverage for our readers all over the world the past two weeks. While the entire Navajo Times staff and carriers went through a 14-day quarantine, we worked remotely to publish two online issues of the Navajo Times.

We are now past the 14-day quarantine stage, we have all been tested negative for the coronavirus, and the Navajo Times staff and carriers are back at work here in our office building in Window Rock.

I hope and pray that we do not have to go through this kind of situation again but with the coronavirus, you just never know what is going to happen. We will continue to be as safe as we can be inside and outside of our office, and we will continued to follow and abide by the guidelines and strategies issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here at the Navajo Times we have a strict policy and procedure in place for our staff, carriers, visitors and customers that is designed to provide as much safety and prevention as possible against any coronavirus sickness and contamination.

We hope you have a policy or guidelines in place for your home, business and office, too. We all need to look out and take care of one another by being as safe as we can all of the time.

Now, for all of those readers who did not have access to our online publications of the June 25 and July 9 issues of the Navajo Times, those issues are still available for full viewing and reading at no cost – it’s free – on our website at: www.navajotimes.com.

Once you go to navajotimes.com, just click on any article that is posted and you will be given separate links to both the June 25 and July 2 issues. They are free for your viewing pleasure and are available to download if you choose to do so. We will keep these two online issues available on our website until further notice.

I hope that you were able to read our online issues as we published plenty of interesting news articles and sports stories, great colorful photos and lots of advertisements, legal notices and classified advertising. I thought that we did a wonderful job of publishing our two online issues and I give a lot of credit to our Navajo Times staff for their dedication and professionalism.

It has been said by certain so-called experts in the media field that printed newspapers are fast becoming a thing of the past and soon all newspapers, magazines and other periodicals will be posted only online.

That forecast may be partially true but I believe that the Navajo Times and other Native American newspapers will be around for a long time to come. We have our special audiences and although our longtime readers are slowly dying off, we still have a quality readership that is devoted and accustomed to a printed newspaper that you can hold in your hands and read while you sip your morning coffee.

The last two weeks has certainly been a learning experience for all of us here at the Navajo Times and for our readers and advertising customers, too. While we all truly missed our printed copies, we know now that we can still deliver the news and advertising to many of our readers through a new medium, and this is the Internet.

One day in the far future, when everyone on the Navajo Nation has full and dependable access to the Internet, perhaps the Navajo Times will become an online newspaper only. There are newspapers right now located all across the USA and in Indian Country that are strictly online publications. They made their choice to switch from a real, printed newspaper to an online presentation primarily due to financial hardships. That’s understandable, to a certain degree.

Here at the Navajo Times, we are newspaper and a newspaper publishing company. We generate enough revenue annually that allows us to continue to print a weekly award-winning newspaper for you – our readers and our advertisers. We have every intention of continuing to operate in that fashion for many more years.

We missed your readership and business the last two weeks and I hope you missed us, too. Thank you everyone for your continued support. Let us all support one another as we battle against the coronavirus. Let us all be safe and may the Almighty Creator bless our Nation with protection, good health, strength and pride.