ELKINS — Effective Wednesday, The Inter-Mountain will be transitioning its rural route subscribers from carrier delivery to the U.S. Postal delivery. Elkins in-town subscribers will not be affected by this change.

“We are pleased we will be able to offer same-day delivery for customers in Randolph, Upshur, Barbour, Tucker and Pocahontas counties with the U.S. Postal Service in the safest and most efficient way,” said Steve Herron, publisher of The Inter-Mountain.

“We are fortunate to live in a beautiful region of West Virginia. What makes the counties our newspaper serve so unique is the remoteness we all enjoy. Unfortunately this same remoteness also presents a lot of challenges when it comes to delivering newspapers on a daily basis, especially in the more rural areas. Due to narrow, winding roads and inclement weather, we have seen a lot of carrier turnover in recent years.

“Every time one of our routes has gone down we have disappointed customers, and that is not acceptable,” Herron said. “We have had a number of dependable independent carriers over the years that have done a great job for us and I thank them for their efforts. But moving forward we have an obligation to all of our customers to provide them with the most consistent and reliable service, and that is through the U.S. Postal Service. Customers will now be able to pick up their newspaper and their mail at the same time every day.

“The greatest enhancement our industry has made within the last few years is digital. All subscribers have the ability to read the entire newspaper online as early as 1 a.m. each morning. All home delivery customers also have access to digital and those that prefer digital only have that as an option also. Our customer service department is happy to set you up either way,” Herron said.

Anyone looking for additional information or experiencing delivery issues is encouraged to call The Inter-Mountain’s Circulation Department at 304-636-2122.

The Inter-Mountain is proud to be your trusted source of news since 1892.