For many years, The Beachcomber has come out on Wednesday morning, promised in delivery tubes and newsstands by 6 a.m. As of July 18, we are changing the delivery time to be no later than 6 p.m. each Wednesday: We will become an evening paper.

We are making the change for a few reasons, hopeful that it will ease some pressure on staff and mean a better paper in the long run, with little disruption (we hope) for readers.

As many islanders know, we typically no longer lay out the newspaper pages ourselves, but instead, the paper is put together in Everett. This change, which began in May, has meant weekend work is a constant, instead of simply frequent. The change has also made it more difficult to cover weekend events, follow up with people for needed information on Monday mornings, and proofread the paper well. And so we sought a change.

Beginning on July 18, the paper will arrive at our office about noon Wednesdays and then be delivered throughout the island that afternoon into the early evening.

As with any transition, we expect bumps. We hope you will be patient with us as we work through this process, and be patient with the drivers as they make the change. One has told us the afternoon hours may make it more challenging, noting heavier traffic and possible school buses to contend with, although on the flip side, he hopes to encounter fewer deer than he has, driving around the island in the dark.

In the office, all of our internal deadlines will remain the same, so there is no need to adjust the timing of press releases and news tips for arts, calendar, letters to the editor or ads.

As always, please feel free to tell us what you think, good, bad or neutral, as we look toward and settle into the new normal.

Finally, as we celebrate the holiday and take stock of our country on this day of patriotism, we hold in our hearts the five people who were killed by a gunman in a newsroom in Annapolis last week. We do not know any of them but imagine them to be our colleagues, who likely worked in a newsroom similar to the one where we spend so much time. We are also thinking of their loved ones and their co-workers, who worked to get the paper out the next day from the back of a pickup truck in a parking garage across the street.

We are mindful of them as we continue our work and redouble our efforts to tell the many stories of this beautiful island we share with all of you.