Subscribers to Peoria’s only daily newspaper go days without newspaper delivery, are treated rudely by delivery people and in one case, a female senior citizen called her carrier after four days without a paper and the response she was given included the word “f***.”

In my case, repeated calls resulted in a threatening note left at my home by the newspaper delivery person. When subscribers call the office rather than their individual carrier, the calls frequently go unanswered. Circulation problems at the Journal Star, owned by GateHouse Media, are directed to an office in Arizona more than 1,500 miles from central Illinois.

In the historic Roanoke neighborhood of Peoria, many subscribers went without a paper for nearly a week, despite repeated complaints. A subscriber in the Forrest Hills Subdivision said papers were not delivered to his neighborhood for days and complaints called in to Arizona resulted in delivery of the past issues . . . days late.

In the 1990s when the paper was owned by Henry Slane and employees, daily circulation at the Journal Star was nearly 90,000. A recent report shows circulation under GateHouse ownership dipped to 34,000. Despite severe cuts in newsroom staffing and local news coverage, executives at GateHouse corporate headquarters in New York continue to get yearly six-figure bonuses.