Best of the South Side 2020!
martha.bayne
Good morning Weekly!
It's been a while, but we've been busy regrouping after the chaos of the spring. I hope you're all doing great, wherever you are right now.
We are moving forward with plans for Best of the South Side, and I wanted to share them with you asap. This year is obviously a highly unusual year in which to attempt any sort of “Best of” feature. That said, this year is also about rising to meet challenges, right? With some forethought and planning we can make this the BEST BoSS ever. Please read on and get in touch with me (martha...@southsideweekly.com) if you have any questions. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU :)
In order to make things a bit easier, we’ve pushed the date of the issue back to late November. That said, we still have to get busy. Here are some relevant deadlines:
Issue date: November 25.
All visuals and edited and FC’d copy due to production: November 18
Visuals assigned: October 31
Copy due from captains to Weekly lead for editing and FC: October 20
Blurbs due from writers to captains: October 6
Blurbs assigned to writers: September 8
Lists of subjects due from captains: September 1
Neighborhood captains list finalized: August 5
Here’s how it will work:
The current neighborhood captains list is here. The first priority is to fill in these holes asap. Editors and regular Weekly folks should feel empowered to seek out new contributors to participate! This is a great opportunity for someone without a lot of experience with the Weekly, or with writing necessarily, to get involved. The captain should ideally be someone from the community they’re covering, or someone with strong ties to it. The captain’s responsibility is to identify people, places, and things in their community of coverage that warrant inclusion in BoSS; the captain does not need to identify as a writer or journalist. The captain will then either execute that coverage or assign it out to other writers if needed. The captain will also work with the Weekly lead and with a visuals editor to determine what photos should be sourced and/or illustrations assigned. If you are interested in being a neighborhood captain or know someone we should reach out to for this role, contact Martha Bayne, martha...@southsideweekly.com.
The options for what could be considered a candidate for a BoSS listing are vast! We want to encourage captains and writers to think outside of standard “best-of” boxes. In 2020 topics could include not just the categorical bests (“best donuts,” “best tacos” etc) but also some things specific to this cultural moment: “Best Popup Food Pantry;” “Best Neighborhood Mutual Aid Group;” “Best Boardedup Storefront Mural;” “Best Place to buy Rope to Topple a Statue.” Remember that the form of a best-of issue is infinitely flexible. If there’s something you think would be fun or meaningful to write about, we can help you make a category that encompasses it.
We’d also like to encourage you to use BoSS as a way to memorialize businesses and people that may not have made it through 2020. These could be places/people that have been featured in past BoSS issues, or newcomers. We don’t want the issue to be a complete downer, but we also want to recognize the reality of this year.
In August, neighborhood captains will do some research to identify a half-dozen possible subjects for their neighborhood. Ideas can be added to this spreadsheet here. (The ideas that are there now are carried over from suggestions for BoSS 2019.) At the end of August we will have a meeting to sort through all the options and narrow things down to a manageable size.
By September 8 captains will assign write-ups to writers (and to themselves). Writers will then have a month to complete their assignments and turn them into the captains, by October 6. The captains will then have two weeks to do a primary edit and pass along for seconds and FC by October 20.
All visuals and edited, fact-checked copy will be due to production by November 18.
Thanks for reading, and again, please hmu with any questions. OK, carry on!
Martha