With area residents being encouraged to stay at home during this time of crisis, many readers of this newspaper who purchased copies each week at a news stand are reluctant to do so. Some have ordered mail subscriptions but those may take a day or more to reach the subscriber’s home.

Instead we have been seeing increased interest in our electronic editions. The electronic paper is included free with a mail subscription or it may be purchased separately.

For those with mail subscriptions, all they have to do is ask and we will provide the passwords needed to access the electronic issue.

This newspaper has, in recent years, been asking subscribers for their email address, thinking at some point we would enroll those in the electronic subscription plan. However, some subscribers have objected and asked not to be included. As a result, we have entered none.

Butch Furse, a Republic native and retired publisher of the Aurora News-Register, described his experience with the Aurora newspaper’s electronic edition.

For several summers he had been an outstate subscriber to the Aurora News-Register. That meant he was receiving his newspaper several days later than normal which was not good for an anxious reader.

When offered the opportunity, he became one of the newspaper’s first on-line subscribers.

Did he like reading on-line? Not as well as with a piece of newspsrint in his hand and a light sniff of ink.

However, the on-line edition provided the reliability of a hometown newspaper reporting local news. He prefers the page look of the newspaper as he reads.

At this time, all of our electronic newspaper offerings can be found at http://www.superiorne.com. Past issues of The Superior Express and Jewell County Record that have been copied electronically are available at http://spx.stparchive.com and theleaderpaper.com.