It’s the most busy time of the year

Many times during the summer months, someone will inevitably approach a staff member here at the Custer County Chronicle and say something to the effect of “you must be really busy this time of year!”
The answer is no, not really.
While Custer is at its busiest during the summer months, the truth is that summertime is a “down time” of the year for us. Well, as much of a down time as we can have. Our small but mighty staff is constantly churning out material, so the phrase down time is irrelevant. The point is, it’s our slowest time of the year.
Our busiest time of the year is right now. The holiday season. Not only is it in the most wonderful time of the year, but it is hands down the most busy time of the year. Throw in a move on top of everything else, and you’ve got a recipe for some frayed nerves.
Why is it so busy for us? For some reason, we made the middle of December the deadline for several things we do, all at once. The first deadline is for our annual Custer Area Chamber of Commerce visitors magazine, which of course we do in conjunction with the chamber. That has to go to press this month so we have it for the new year. That involves building ads, getting the listings right, writing stories, updating infographics, and 60 pages of layout.
At the same time we’re doing this, we’re putting out another Down Country Roads Magazine. That deadline was last Friday. The same deadline as the chamber magazine. Oh, and also at that deadline are our annual Christmas greeting ads, which you will find in next week’s paper. Those all have to be dealt with, and we also have to type all the children’s Letters To Santa. That’s a labor of love, because they are so hysterically cute.
While this is going on we are starting our production of “The Best of 2025,” preparing our year in review stories, planning a holiday party, covering schools and sports and still churning out three newspapers. Yes, it’s a lot.
This isn’t complaining or whining. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Staying busy means job security, and it means the people of this community have enough belief in us that they continue to support our publications just as quickly as we can put them out. For that we remain grateful. We will say it as often as we can: without readers and advertisers we would have nothing to do, and none of us wants that. We hope you don’t want that either.
What this is, however, is a request for a little patience and grace as we work our way through all of these publications. For instance, Jason has promised a story on both sides of the ongoing dispute between the city and county over how much the city should pay the county for law enforcement coverage in the city. He’s going to get to it. If it wasn’t this week, it will be soon. He’s working just as fast as he can. The entire staff is working hard.
As we reach the end of 2025, we want to once again say thank you for your trust and support. This has been a big year and a year of change for us, and you have been there every step of the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you. May you have the merriest of Christmases.