From the Editor: Mark your calendars for our first print edition!

Hey Folks,

The past month at the Oxford Free Press has been a whirlwind of behind-the-scenes work and community coverage. It's hard to believe our website has been live for just two weeks, but in that time we've already published more than 30 stories.

Also during those two weeks, we've been diligently working toward our next steps, and I'm happy to announce that our first print edition will be published on Friday, July 12! I'd like to share some details with you about our print schedule and where you'll be able to pick it up, but first I have a few more updates I'm excited to share with the community.

Obituaries are now live on our website

One of the most important services a local newspaper provides for the community is the publication of obituaries. We're happy to share that our obituaries page is online now, including local obituaries published through Paul R. Young Funeral home and Weigel Funeral Home.

If you'd like to submit an obituary, please email obits@oxfreepress.com. As a nonprofit organization, we will not charge families to publish obituaries for their loved ones, though we encourage suggested donations of $100. Donations can be made by signing up as a member on our website or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 857, Oxford, OH 45056.

Obituaries will also appear in our print editions. While we will not charge for this service, obituaries published in print and online may be subject to editing for length and spatial considerations. These edits will be communicated to families in advance, unless the obituary is pulled from a funeral home website.

For more information on obituaries, click here. To view the obituaries currently on our website, visit this page.

Introducing public office hours

The Oxford Free Press is committed to being a newspaper that accurately reflects and represents the community. As part of this mission, my personal goal is to spend time engaging with all of you regularly, whether that's to talk about our stories, hear your ideas or just chat.

To work toward that goal, I'll be holding public office hours at Oxford Lane Library every other week through the rest of this summer. Please feel free to stop by at the times below to meet and chat about anything that's on your mind. If you can't make it, please feel free to reach out and introduce yourself at editor@oxfreepress.com.

Here are the times and locations for my office hours, all in Oxford Lane Library:

• Tuesday, July 2: 1-5 p.m. — Havighurst Meeting Room
• Wednesday, July 17: 1-5 p.m. — Study Room C
• Thursday, Aug. 1: 1-5 p.m. — Havighurst Meeting Room
• Tuesday, Aug. 13: 1-5 p.m. — Havighurst Meeting Room
• Wednesday, Aug. 28: 1-5 p.m. — Study Room C

How to get our first print, and how you can help

Our first print edition is set to arrive on Friday, July 12! We'll be distributing to a number of key locations within Oxford and the surrounding townships throughout the afternoon.

From then on, you can expect the Oxford Free Press to hit newsstands each week in print on Friday afternoons. We'll share a list of official distribution locations early next week. In order to keep this sustainable, you can help in a few different ways.

First, donate! Based on feedback during the first few weeks of our website being live, we've added a monthly donation option rather than just yearly. Your funding makes it possible for us to maintain the website, put our time toward covering stories in the community, and of course, print. If you want to donate but can't commit to the suggested amounts on the website or would like to give more, please mail checks to P.O. Box 857, Oxford, OH 45056, and include your email so we can add you to the members-only newsletter which will include a digital version of each print edition starting July 12.

Second, feel free to suggest distribution locations. We're a small staff and can't deliver to individual homes. If you own a business or community gathering space and want to have the print edition available to your patrons, though, let us know! You can shoot me an email at editor@oxfreepress.com and share your location plus the number of issues you'd like distributed each week.

Third, let us know what you think of our coverage so far. The best way for us to serve the community is by hearing from you all. What are we doing well? What do you think is missing from our website right now? Are there any initiatives within the community you'd like to see us involved in? Once again, email me with your thoughts, or stop by at Lane Library from 1-5 p.m. July 2.

That's all the updates from me for now. I can't wait for the first print edition to be yours next week. Until then, enjoy all of our Fourth of July coverage and more this week!

From the editor,

Sean Scott