Publisher’s Notebook: Navigating in uncharted waters

Published 12:30 am Tuesday, April 28, 2020

We’re in a completely unprecedented time of sudden local business closures, event cancellations and widespread layoffs.

Even meeting the challenges of 9/11 and the Great Recession could not prepare us for the upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic. The Astorian, like everyone else, is navigating in uncharted waters, unsure of the future ahead but setting sails to journey on.

When the COVID-19 restrictions started last month, we set our priorities to determine our course:

• Keep our employees healthy.

• Keep our community informed.

• Take care of our customers.

• Keep our newspaper in business.

Keep our employees healthy

Foremost, to accomplish anything else, our employees have to stay healthy. The front door is locked so that visitor traffic is controlled. Most reporters, sales and design staff are working from home. Work areas are disinfected every morning and after lunch, and again by the cleaning service after hours. Anyone not working from home has been supplied a face mask. The first item on the daily check-in with managers is a status check on employees and their families.

Keep our community informed

Our employees do the work that fulfills our mission statement: to be the local media leader, producing credible news that earns our communities’ trust. Report and distribute local news and information because a well-informed public keeps our communities strong.

The stories and images of this historic time in Astoria are being told, not through government press releases, but by trained journalists. Reporters are working, remotely, to sort through tips, track down interviews, ask questions, check facts.

Our news-sharing agreements mean that you are likely to see Astorian stories on Portland television and statewide news. We reaffirmed our local news partnership with Coast Community Radio for cooperative distribution. Fortunately, we’ve made investments in digital platforms to reach a broad audience quickly through our website, apps and social media.

We continue to deliver news in print, too. Press and distribution center employees and delivery contractors all work to be sure that the newspaper is manufactured and packaged for our postal service partners who keep delivering the newspaper to you, despite their own additional load of online-ordered deliveries. Astoria School District bus drivers deliver the newspaper with school breakfasts and lunches to families who might not otherwise see the news.

Take care of our customers

The Astorian’s customers are our subscribers and advertisers. Our promotions have shifted to reach print customers who haven’t yet activated their digital access with the message to take advantage of the digital benefits of their subscription, which includes 24-7 news delivered via web and app.

Many of our advertising customers have lost their entire revenue streams. Those who have stayed open need to get that message to the public — to keep the dollars coming in. Every edition since March 23 has included a full page of “open for business” listings provided free to local businesses which are open and offering services.

The Astorian buys lunch on “takeout Tuesday” for the employees working in the building. We do that to support local restaurants. Our sales team is reaching out to advertisers to brainstorm marketing ideas. We’ve offered “Buy one, get one free” print ads – to extend local business advertising dollars during the crisis. Our advertisers are taking advantage of the surge in website viewing to reach a news-hungry digital audience. All local businesses are in the same boat, and working together to stay afloat.

Keep our newspaper in business

Two-thirds of our operating revenue comes from advertising. Closed businesses and canceled events have seriously impacted April advertising, down over 40% to last year. Our coronavirus news coverage is available to all website viewers in the interest of public health and safety, but we’ve doubled down on the message that it’s important to subscribe to support our continued news operations. We’ve been grateful to receive a handful of donations from supporters, including a donor who purchased two online subscriptions for strangers — a double win.

We are looking into an unpredictable post-coronavirus economy, so we acted quickly to cut expenses. Four open jobs have not been filled, and four more employees were laid off, two each at The Astorian and at our sister newspaper in Long Beach, Washington, the Chinook Observer. We’ve reduced newsprint as well — for example, Coast Weekend is now 16 pages instead of 24, since there’s no event calendar, no previews of performing arts and music events.

EO Media Group, The Astorian’s owner, received a Payroll Protection Program loan to cover payroll for remaining employees for the next two months. We have applied for grants to help mitigate some of the revenue losses. These grants and loans provide a bridge to the other side of the COVID-19 restrictions. We are making plans now that will improve our business for the future.

As we chart our course for what lies beyond the pandemic, we will emerge a different organization, in many ways with a stronger sense of purpose and newly-found skills and efficiencies. Crisis creates an urgent focus on what’s important — and makes us let go of what is not.