One of the more frequent complaints we receive is about the lack of sports coverage in the print edition of The Observer. We’ve even had a reader or two suggest remedying this is as simple as adding pages to any particular edition of the paper.

But it’s not. Paper and ink cost money. Ads help cover that cost. But sports pages without ads can mean The Observer is losing money, not even breaking even.

I’ve touched on this in print columns before but I will mention again here that the effect COVID had on The Observer and our parent company, EO Media Group, can’t be overstated. It forced our hand on a few fronts and accelerated some timelines into decisions that — at the time — seemed unthinkable, and one of those changes is in our ability to cover sports like we did before the pandemic. Post-pandemic we are doing the best we can with the limited resources we have on staff.

We currently don’t have a sports reporter on staff. Prior to the start of the 2022-23 sports schedule, we partnered with EasternOregonSports.com to provide nightly game coverage for our website. We also utilized a pair of former reporters — Ronald Bond and Davis Carbaugh — in our sports coverage. Ronald provided features and profiles, while Davis handled our Eastern Oregon University game coverage.

I expect that arraignment to continue into 2023-24.

These changes to our sports coverage continue to evolve and will take a little getting used to for all of us, but it offers the best of what The Observer provides — timely coverage and unique local stories in print and online.

But if you are a sports fan and subscribe to The Observer, we have a cool feature available through the website. 

Across the top of the website, where it says “Sports,” you can find under the heading a link to coverage from Sports Illustrated. This content is only available on the web. We can’t use it for print. As you can guess, there’s a lot of college and pro sports coverage there. 

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If you haven’t already, take a moment to register your subscription for digital access of The Observer. Call 541-963-3161 to talk to one of our customer service staff who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to get set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription.

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As always, if you have comments or questions about The Observer: acutler@lagrandeobserver.com.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank The Observer’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.

Andrew Cutler is the interim editor of The Observer.