Frequently Asked Questions

We often have readers and customers call us, e-mail us or fax us questions about our business, publications and staff. Read the answers to some of the questions we have received. If you have any questions you would like answered and included on this page, e-mail to: idacourier@frontiernet.net Question: Are the classified ads available on the internet? Answer: All classified ads placed in the Reminder and Courier (with the exception of Cards of Thanks) are available online every Tuesday at midnight. Simply use the classified ad link located on the left hand side of our website. Question: I picked up a Reminder at your office on Tuesday morning and there weren't any circulars included with it. Why? Answer: The Reminders are prepared for the mailing on Tuesday morning. Advertisers instruct us which towns on our Reminder mailing to put their flyers in. We do not know if we will have extras flyers for the front counter until after the mailing is completed. The Reminder you receive at your home Tuesday or Wednesday should include the inserts. Question: I went to the grocery store on Wednesday morning to buy a Courier and they weren't on the newsstands yet. When are they distributed? Answer: We make our rounds on Wednesday mornings, however the times for each store differ due to our varied schedule each Wednesday. The papers for Arthur and Odebolt won't reach the newsstands until Thursday due to our route schedule in that area. As soon as the Couriers arrive at our office on Wednesday mornings, they are placed at the front counter for sale. I would stop at our office first if it is early Wednesday. Question: My subscription came due 12/01/01 and I didn't mail my check until 12/06/01. Why didn't I receive the December 5th issue? Answer: When we did updates for the December 5th issue and didn't have a record that you had sent a check, your name was removed from the mailing list. We mail renewal notices three weeks in advance of due date to allow sufficient time for subscribers to make payment. Unfortunately, we can't assume that you are renewing if payment hasn't been received. Payment must be received prior to subscription due date or we accept credit cards for renewals. Simply call us with card number and information or renew online and your subscription is updated promptly and delivery won't be interrupted. Question: Why did the carrier forget my grocery store inserts in this week's Reminder. Answer: A list of the inserts in each week's Reminder appears at the top of page one. If you feel you are missing one, check the list first. Sometimes retailers have an insert good for 2 weeks so they may not have a flyer each week. Question: I live outside your 10 town mailing area for the Reminder. How can I receive a copy? Answer: We have a limited number of extra copies at our office each week. Simply stop by after 8 a.m. on Tuesday and pick one up. We also sell subscriptions to the Reminder for $38.50 per year anywhere in the United States. The subscription Reminders are mailed without inserts to cut down on postage costs. Question: Why are your classified ads higher priced than area newspapers? Answer: Our classified ads are published in BOTH the Reminder and Ida County Courier for a circulation totaling over 9,000 homes. Most area newspapers have an average circulation of under 2,000. Classified ads are published in the Reminder on Tuesdays, which comes out one day ahead of most area papers. When you have a distribution area as large as ours, the ads will be slightly higher priced but often advertisers have told us they get the most response out of classified ads placed in our publications. Question: When I come to your office, I often hear presses running. Do you print the papers at your office? Answer: The Green Saver is printed in Armstrong, Iowa. The Reminder and Courier are printed in LeMars. The presses you hear running, are for Commercial Job Printing work such as envelopes, flyers, letterhead, brochures, etc. Ron Thies owns the Commerical Job Printing business that is located at our office. Question: Why is your Green Saver and Reminder display ad deadline Friday at 5 p.m.? Answer: The Green Saver pages are sent to the printer early Monday morning, which means all ads received at our office by the 5 p.m. Friday deadline have to be typeset, proofread and placed on appropriate pages by that time. The Reminder pages have to be completed and sent to the printer shortly after lunch on Monday. Many advertisers submit ad copy well in advance of our deadline, allowing us more time to complete the ads and pages. However, many of our ads are received at deadline and we need time to complete those ads to meet the printers' deadlines. Question: Where are you located? Answer: We are in the "castle" building located at the east end of the business district in Ida Grove. You can't miss us! Question: Do you only cover Ida Grove events in the Courier? Answer: Since the Courier started publication in 1975, our policy has been to cover a majority of events in Ida County (and surrounding area as well). Our reporters cover meetings and take pictures in Battle Creek, Holstein, Arthur, Galva and Odebolt. We follow the events of the three school districts in our area as well: BCIG, Odebolt-Arthur and Galva-Holstein. We receive many compliments on the full coverage of area events we have each week in the IDA COUNTY Courier. It makes it convenient for our readers to purchase one publication and read about the entire county, not just one town. Question: Can I buy a back issue of the Courier? Answer: Yes. Simply stop by our office and give us the date of publication you are looking for. We keep a limited number of extra copies for one year and then because of space limitations, they are recycled. It is best to request a back issue as soon as possible after publication. Each issue (old or new) sells for $1.00. The cost to have a back issue mailed is $4.00 which includes the cost of the issue plus postage and handling. This fee must be paid in advance. Simply mail check and date of requested issue. Question: Should I fax my news article to the Courier? Answer: We prefer e-mail because of the text editing features. We simply copy your e-mail and paste it into our word document and can edit from there. A fax has to be completely retyped and formatted. Our news desk e-mail is: editor@idacountycourier.com Keep in mind, the shorter the article the better chance of having it printed in full in the Courier. We do reserve the right to edit or refuse to publish a story. Question: Do you charge for anniversary or engagement announcements published in the Ida County Courier? Answer: Many area papers have a charge for such information. Our society notices are free of charge. If you wish to have the information published in the Reminder, there is a charge as that publication is a separate paper and goes free to everyone in the area. It contains 100% advertising...no news content is included in the Reminder. Question: Why is the display ad rate for the Reminder higher than area newspapers. Answer: The Reminder is a different type of publication than area newspapers. First of all, it is distributed FREE to EVERY HOME in 10 towns. Many area newspapers are subscription based papers and subscription income helps offset publication costs. Because the Reminder is distributed to so many homes free, the publication and postage costs are higher. Question: Did you publish a paper this week? Answer: The Reminder and Ida County Courier are officially designated as periodical publications through the U.S. Post Office. One of the requirements to keep such status and be able to mail our papers each week, is we have to publish 52 times a year. So, yes, we published a paper this week! Question: Can you buy the photos that appear in the Courier? Answer: Our pages compiled electronically, so we no longer use printed paper photos for the Courier. We do store all negatives and digital photos, of any picture our staff has taken, on computer and disk. Simply click the blue button on our home page, to view and purchase any picture that was in the paper as well as others that were not. The photos are no longer printed in house. Question: Why didn't I get my Courier in Thursday's mail when I dropped off my renewal check on Tuesday afternoon? Answer: We do subscription updates on Tuesday mornings to allow enough time to print labels and sort for mailing on Wednesday. In order to make any changes to Wednesday's Courier mailing, we need to have the information by Tuesday morning.