Update from the South Side Weekly regarding coronavirus
South Side Weekly
Dear Weekly team,
We hope you’re all doing well and staying safe during these strange and unprecedented days. To everyone that has been displaced due to a school closing, we hope you have found shelter with friends or family. And to everyone that has lost work due to illness, family concerns, or to a business closing, we hope that government officials do the right thing and begin to offer financial assistance immediately. We’re writing now because we have a short survey we’re asking everyone to fill out so we can get a better sense of how your lives have been affected and how your ability to be involved with the Weekly may have changed. We don’t have a lot of resources, but we do have a large network, and we hope that will be useful to you in the coming weeks and months.
We also wanted to reach out with some updates about what’s happening at the Weekly. First, we plan to continue publishing, but all future production nights will be done remotely until further notice. We thank the writers and editors that have been working hard on the housing stories, but please note: the housing issue has been postponed. It’s unlikely that we will be able to print an issue on 4/1, but we may publish time-sensitive housing issue stories online during the week of 4/1. Please reach out to editors Adam Przybyl and Sarah Fineman for details.
A handful of people have started working on coronavirus/COVID-19 stories for the web and are receiving small stipends through a public health grant. If you’re interested in contributing to our coronavirus/COVID-19 coverage, please review the pitch doc and reach out to Martha Bayne: martha...@southsideweekly.com. We hope to raise additional funding for this coverage (the scope of which is still evolving) to ensure that we are able to serve our readers under these extraordinary circumstances.
To those of you that have stories in progress, please reach out to your primary editors and let them know what you need. We’ll be developing best practices for reporting during the pandemic. In the meantime, please conduct all interviews by phone, email, or teleconference. Feel free to reach out via Slack or email if you have any questions.
Thank you for your time. We'll be in touch. Please stay safe and inside your homes as much as possible.
Jackie Serrato
Editor-in-chief
jackie....@southsideweekly.com
Martha Bayne
Managing Editor
Sam Joyce
Managing Editor
Jason Schumer
Managing Director
jason....@southsideweekly.com