The bolt shot home around a year ago after the News Review issue of March 12, 2020. With the benefit of hindsight, it was only the first tentative inroad of the pandemic. Very few people actually knew someone who was sick – perhaps a friend of a friend – but the pattern of who was vulnerable had already clearly emerged – older people and especially those with comorbidities (a new word to most that was to gain infinite meaning for too many). And the staff of the News Review is rather prone to being old. The average age of copy editing, proofing and advertising teams is well over 70 so there’s a lot of white hair and some unsteadiness of gait – and presumably the usual incidence of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes in that age group.
Hunkering Down
The decision was made to stop the in-office sessions which had been the beating heart of the newspaper since 1937 and which are at least part of the reason its members enjoy the newspaper. Tuesday afternoons and evenings were a period where a group of mostly like-minded people got together and made, by golly, a newspaper. They didn’t quilt, improve their minds with poetry, win at bridge, embroider or stretch – they made an honest-to-goodness entire, viable, non-Pulitzer-Prize-winning newspaper. Every week. This newspaper goes out into the community and into people’s lives and makes a little bit of difference in the world. It creates an enduring documentary of the history of a small city on the fringes of a big one – and of the people who live in it.
Making Adjustments
A few people continued to physically come into the office but under careful sanitary precautions with only four people in the room (which is about 600 sq. ft.) at a time. Existing systems originally designed to provide online backup to the newspaper’s production cycle were jury-rigged to accommodate increased levels of remote access and a primitive workflow system was superimposed on the processes and naming conventions already in use. Over time, more people were introduced to the system and could participate remotely, although the system was challenging to staff members who were not comfortable with computers and impractical for involving very many.
Coming Back
As the city winds itself back out of the lockdown pit, the News Review will be in step. Because of the staff’s age, members are likely to be among the earlier groups to be vaccinated and the expectation is that as individuals become vaccinated, the newspaper will welcome them back into the newsroom and return to its pre-pandemic hours and staffing. The enforced rigidity of the workflow system will relax once again into the interplay of a typical Tuesday – “What do you think of this?” “Let me have a crack at that.” “What could they be thinking?” “Who has the barber shop story open?” “Ooops!”
A Worthwhile Outcome
The care that was taken, the energy expended and the patience and ingenuity of the members has gone through a year of trial and prevailed. Once again, as it did through 83 years before, the Greenbelt News Review adapted and continued. It didn’t miss an issue and – more importantly – the lives of members were protected. Knock on wood, no member of the staff caught Covid-19. The precautions taken and the systems adopted proved their worth.
Going Forward
There is much to do. The newspaper needs to rebuild its advertising base because it is losing money every week. Normally, the size of the paper is based on advertising and it is rare that there’s not the revenue to pay for printing 12 pages – so the newspaper generally breaks even. Advertising, however, has dropped enough that there is no newspaper with few enough pages to allow reaching the break-even point. The outflow has been staunched to some degree by economies and can be supported by reserves built up over the years, but not indefinitely. As the city recovers economically, the newspaper anticipates a rebound in at least some of its advertising (and indeed, already sees a small trend in that direction) but will need to aggressively seek out new advertisers to restore the balance.
New Blood Needed
Expect also a drive to recruit new volunteers. Having once been young themselves, the older generation of News Review members know how busy it is to work and raise a family. But they also know that a couple of hours a week at the News Review office or the occasional story or photo clears the head and expands the mind.