These are certainly unusual times. As journalists we are aiming to provide our readers with as much information as we can glean from government sources on the local, county, state and national levels.
We have been providing daily updates on our Facebook pages: Sedonanews and Cottonwoodnews. Our reporters are covering not only the COVID-19 outbreak but the response from government authorities, hospitals and public health professionals.
While we are interested in covering the public health aspect of this outbreak, we are also a community newspaper and our news coverage extends beyond merely who may be sick, when to get tested and protocols to limit the spread.
We also want to tell your stories about how you are coping with these difficult times.
Not only are we addressing how the faithful attend religious services, but also how parents, now homeschooling, are coping with the daily difficulties in both educating their children and keeping their homes harmonious.
Local governments are still holding meetings while social distancing or through online livestreams, but with the lack of a crowd and thus public participation, many governments are reluctant to vote or act on contentious issues, so the already laborious machinery of bureaucracy will be slower than normal.
We journalists by nature are a social people and need social interaction to ferret out news stories, get tips and leads. Many of our normal contact points have been reduced. We have found loads of stories to cover, but due to closures and distancing efforts, we may not be finding all the stories our readers need and want to know. So, we are asking you for your assistance.
Do you know a nonprofit, an individual or a group performing charity work? Send me a press release. Our guidelines are on our website. Even if our print edition is too tight to run it, we might post it on our website or Facebook page.
Sedona Christina Gordon, whom we featured two weeks ago, shared with us a means for residents to “tip” out-of-work service workers via Paypal, Venmo and other money transfer programs on serviceindustry.tips/en/az/verde-valley. We shared it on our Facebook pages and with our friends at the Arizona Daily Sun in the Flagstaff area. Now the program is helping unemployed service workers throughout Northern Arizona, all because of Gordon’s tenacity.
Is your essential business still operating? If so, contact General Manager Kyle Larson at (928) 282-7795 ext 114 to discuss advertising options in our print edition, websites or Facebook pages.
Do you work for a business or an industry that would normally charge for services but is now offering them for free online? Send us the link. We will do our best to post this information on our Facebook page and/or our website.
Are you a musician, performance artist or spoken word poet posting livestreams of your performances? Send us the link to your home concerts or shows and we’ll share them.
We’re not merely trying to tell news stories and publish press releases. We’re also trying to provide residents, families and visitors with activities to pass the time and give them some sense of normalcy, even if that normalcy comes through a computer screen.
For instance, we’ve posted links to Arizona Game & Fish Department webcams and videos from the Museum of Northern Arizona and live music concerts from Dani Glick and her band Inde Ella.
In today’s edition, we have a first-person story written by Emma Keider, a 2016 Sedona Red Rock High School graduate who is now graduating from Northern Arizona University with a degree in journalism and public relations. However, due to COVID- 19 closures, she will not have a graduation ceremony even though she already bought her cap and gown. We are happy to run her story for our readers to celebrate her success. If you or your child was denied a college graduation ceremony due to coronavirus closures, contact us and we’ll see what we can do to honor their achievements.
We plan on printing our high school graduation pages as normal. Even though the in-person school year was prematurely ended, school districts are working on how to have some semblance of a graduation ceremony. We are working to provide you with details about how graduation will proceed, which from what we have heard, will be interesting to say the least.
Email me at editor@larsonnewspapers.com, call us at 282-7795, or send us a message via Facebook messenger and help us help our community.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
