A weekly newspaper depends, even more than a daily newspaper, on the material and information that our readers send us. We have many groups here in Manhasset--church groups, civic groups, social and fraternal groups--and they all have news that some of our readers want to know about. Most of these groups have publicity chairs and most of them are a pleasure to work with. They get us their information on time with good pictures whose subjects are clearly identified. We can certainly understand if once in a while we get a frantic call from someone who realizes that the information is going to arrive after the paper's deadline. We try to accommodate them, but some people make emergencies a habit. Here's the way it works. Working backward, if you get the paper in Thursday's mail, it stands to reason that it was mailed on Wednesday, which means that it was printed on Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. That means that it was produced on Tuesday. No matter how desperately important it is for your group to get its information into the paper there's no way we can do it once the paper has gone to the printer. The calendar of events is a special category. Because it is so long and takes up so much space, it really has to be completed before the rest of the paper. That's why we ask you to get us your calendar items a full week before the date of the paper. Ten days is even better. Electronic delivery has speeded things up some, but it's not always the best way to go. E-mail is great; e-mailed pictures are not necessarily so. We promise we will do our best and the technology is certainly getting better all the time. In general, if you can, we appreciate receiving your material (aside from the calendar) no later than noon on Monday of the week that the paper comes out. Obviously, if it's breaking news, that's another story, but if you've known for months that you're going to hold an event on March 17, for example, please don't wait until March 16 to tell us about it. If we work together it will benefit your organization and our communications system. Happy New Year!

E.F.B.