To our readers:

Beginning with the Oct. 1 edition, the Picayune Item will be delivered via the U.S. Postal Service Tuesday through Friday. In order to get your newspaper to you on Sunday morning, we will continue Sunday delivery via Item carriers.

During the past several years, many newspapers across the country have moved to mail delivery because of the efficiencies it offers. Newspapers also have faced the growing challenge of maintining its own internal delivery force. In the face of rising gasoline prices and higher newsprint prices, this task has become more difficult. Like many other U.S. newspapers, the Picayune Item is adjusting its business model in order to stay competitive and affordable to our readers.

Internally, in order to assure subscribers they will get same day delivery, the Picayune Item staff will convert its operations to an a.m. cycle. This means that your paper will be printed early enough each day so that it can be delivered to the Post Office in time for the postal carriers to get it into your mailbox that day. Readers still will receive the same daily delivery they have come to rely on with the Item, but it will now arrive in their mailbox.

An added benefit to this conversion will be seen in single copy sales locations — newspaper racks and stores in our area. Beginning Oct. 1, and in some areas sooner than that, the daily newspapers will be available at these locations no later than 6 a.m. each morning. You will be able to buy a copy of the Item much earlier than before.

Some Item customers may begin to see this conversion immediately if the newspaper carrier is not present on that route. Again, by Oct.1, all Item customers will find their newspaper in the mailbox.

The Picayune Item is owned and operated by CNHI, which owns and publishes weekly and daily newspapers, shoppers, magazines and niche publications in more than 20 states. Other CNHI operations in Mississippi include, Luarel, Meridian, Kosciusko and Newton.