We know better than to think that every one of our readers and advertisers hasn’t seen his or her own version of extremely difficult times in the last year and knows all too well what they call for.

This was intended to be a headline above a message from our publisher Barry Reid about the economic uppercut to the jaw we’ve taken along with every other county business and the difficult measure we must implement to keep ourselves afloat and still bring you the news twice a week.

You’ll still fi nd that message below.

But this week we got slammed with the second part of that one-two pandemic punch when nearly every member of our nine-member staff tested positive for COW:D-19.

So we’ve our next two to protect and we’ve given our employees who feel well enough the option to work as they can during that time to ensure we don’t miss a newspaper

But, that means this issue and the next three may not be up to our usual standards. (You won’t find all the sports coverage you’re used to for one thing, but we promise it will be back.)

And, ifyou want to submit news or advertising or transact any other business with us, we’re still available by phone at (405)375-3220, email, text, Facebook message and all the other channels you’re used to.

We already knew that we have an extraordinarily loyal and dedicated newspaper staff But seeing them in action under what will likely be the most challenging two weeks we’ve faced as a newspaper family makes us even more aware of the duty we owe them to do everything we can to stag economically viable.

We owe that same duty to our newspaper family — our subscribers and advertisers who’ve relied on this news source for more than 132 years.

Which brings us right back around to that first difficult measure we intended to announce. Read on.