Full circle, The Sun to be mailed

We have come full circle.

After 58 years, The Sun Newspapers will return next week to all mail delivery, free.

In 1950, when The Sun Newspapers were founded by my parents, Stan and Shirley Rose, their little publication for Prairie Village and surrounding suburbs, called The Prairie Scout, was mailed, free.

The newspaper was mailed to 3,000 homes every other week.

And where did the Roses get the mailing list?  The J.C. Nichols Co., the visionary real estate firm that developed Prairie Village and surrounding suburbs in Kansas, not only provided the list. They actually mailed the newspaper.

The newspapers continued to be mailed, eventually to more than 20,000 homes, for about 20 years. That’s when we went to young carriers.

We hired hundreds of kids who delivered to every home in our Johnson County circulation area. They then asked for voluntary subscription contributions every month, of which they kept a major portion. Even today, adults will come up to me to thank me for this first job.

But after a decade with the kids, it became harder and harder to find youngsters willing to take on carrier routes.

That’s when we decided to go to adult, independent contract carriers. At that time, they were also delivering The Kansas City Star.

That is basically the system we had through this issue, the final contract-carrier delivered newspaper.

Why the change?

Well, let’s put it this way. We have some wonderful, outstanding carriers who dutifully deliver to every household on their routes. Some rarely, if ever, miss. And we want to personally thank them for their professionalism, through rain, sleet and snow.

Some, however, do miss. Circulation delivery, despite our best efforts, has been erratic.

Meanwhile, the costs of thrown delivery have risen substantially over time, which now makes mail delivery, in contrast, more feasible, allowing us to bring the paper to your mailbox, instead of at the end of your driveway.

So, beginning next week, you will receive The Sun on Wednesday with guaranteed mail delivery.

We will be calling you to confirm that you want The Sun. Inasmuch as you are reading this column, you probably are among our loyalists.

Next week, we return to your mailbox.

Contact Steve Rose at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Write comment