As readers will see on atop our first page, next week’s edition will be Vol. 33, No. 52. That means it will be the final (52nd week) edition completing our 33rd year of consecutive weekly publication and distribution to every household in Falls Church, marking yet another milestone for which we are proud and grateful.

We are now almost the only Northern Virginia news source that still publishes and distributes a print newspaper. Others have either folded or have reverted to an online-only option. We take no pleasure in this. Democracy is on thin ice, in our country and globally, and that is in no small part due to the attacks on the free press by both authoritarian political figures and through the cold realities of unforgiving market forces.

To continue our service to our readers and advertisers in and around Falls Church, we are introducing some important changes that readers will be experiencing soon going forward. Ironically, these changes take the form of actual improvements to our service, such as an experimental introduction of delivery of the paper by the U.S. Postal Service. That will begin next week to a small portion of City residents, and we will eagerly welcome feedback by our readers concerning it. As we assess the impact of this, our carrier delivery, as performed so well by Julio Idobo and his team over many years, will be essential for placement of the paper at bulk distribution sites in street boxes and at retailers.

Additionally, we will be launching paid premium access to certain elements of our online content, which will be further expanding beyond what you read each week in our print issue. News-Press managing editor Nick Gatz has spent the last year doing a magnificent job of building a website and online presence that now attracts about two million page views a month. We will continue to offer and to enhance not only constantly-updated local news, including school news and sports, but also incomparable exclusive coverage of regional, state and national events and information. We will continue, and will enhance, our unique coverage of important news and comments from our area U.S. congressmen, including our own Rep. Don Beyer, and senators, from the White House, from our regional leaders in Richmond and from neighboring lawmakers, and as well as, of course, from those who serve the amazing City of Falls Church. We are now, and will be even more so, second to none in the quality of this coverage. We will continue to welcome responsible points of view, even those contrary to our own editorially, and those of seasoned pros like columnists for the New York Times.

To make all this work, we will be relying on our readers to pitch in to support this effort, and we hope in the name of a free press and our shared democratic values, that they will.