Isn't it a pity...when you can't reach who you want?

Today I spent over an hour on hold trying to get my insurance renewed only to be told that everyone who could help me was busy and they would have to call me back tomorrow…can anyone else smell a rant coming? (Wait, who am I kidding, only one person reads this blog and, either way, I have no idea what a rant smells like either)
This is an instance of horrible customer service. I am calling to do something that must be done in the near future so that my insurance can be renewed or revoked. I called and wasn’t dealt with. Due to a lack of staffing at this call center that is supposed to handle my situation I may not be able to hear whether my insurance is renewed before my current insurance runs out at month’s end. Needless to say, it was supremely infuriating.
Now, take this situation and apply it to a newsroom, especially the supremely staffed Missourian newsroom. We have — guesstimating — at least 30 writers in the office a day along with other staff, and what is the best way to get in touch with the paper? Letters to the editor and comments at the end of stories or, if you’re very lucky, you can call and ask for the reporter and they may be in. It reminds me of my hours on hold today. If I am someone who has something to say about a story that hit yesterday, I might not be able to be heard and if I was, it might not be for a while. I might have a lead to follow up on a story or I might have a correction. I know we have many ways for people to get in contact with us as a paper, but maybe it would serve our readers better if they had more ways to reach us as individuals. I would love to hear the good or bad things people had to say about my stories. Due to that fact, I would be all for putting a personal, or Missourian specific, email below my stories instead of news@columbiamissourian.com. Just a thought I had to avoid “phone-hold” exasperation.