OREGON — For more than three decades the Ogle County Life newspaper has been delivered free to residents, stores and racks in 12 different communities, including Oregon, Byron, Mt. Morris, Stillman Valley, Polo, Forreston, Leaf River, Davis Junction, Chana and more.
This unique county-wide newspaper has been very popular with area residents, but rising publication costs and tightening advertising budgets have made it more difficult of late to operate this model.
So, in an effort to continue delivering the Life publication free to readers’ homes, News Media Corporation will be merging the Oregon office personnel into the company’s Rochelle office location, effective on Monday, March 2.
“The last day we will be open in our Oregon office at 311 W. Washington Street will be Thursday, Feb. 27,” said Life general manager Mike Feltes. “However, we will be keeping our same Oregon phone number and same post office box number with the Oregon Post Office, and we will soon be announcing the location of a public drop box in Oregon for article submissions, advertising submissions and payments.”
Feltes explained that the Life sales and management personnel have always been located out of the Rochelle office and there will be no change to how customers are served and news is covered.
“We were already serving several towns from our Rochelle base, so this move will not affect too many customers outside of the Oregon area,” he points out. “We are still located in Ogle County and actually we will now offer expanded hours and be available and responsive from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday in Rochelle.”
The Life’s office in Rochelle is located at 211 Hwy. 38 E. right next door to Dunkin Donuts. The phone number remains 815-732-2156 and the Life’s mailing address will remain Ogle County Life, P.O. Box 378, Oregon, IL 61061.