Newsroom team adjusts to new realities in 2020
As COVID-19 began its spread through the area, The Examiner had to adapt quickly.
First, everyone went home. Our East City newsroom and sales office was closed, and staff began working remotely. This poses challenges for journalists, whose work involves being out in the community to see things for themselves, to interview people and shoot photos and video.
We made adjustments, and thanks to today’s technology it was a smooth transition. Whenever possible, we handled things remotely, which became the norm after government and other organizations moved to online video conferencing to hold meetings and other events.
That’s not so simple for photographer Clifford Skarstedt; his work requires him to be there in person. He masked up and became a very early adopter of the health protocols we now take for granted, and developed new ways to work. Looking back over the year, you’ll see a lot of his photos taken from a distance with a long lens, or through windows. It’s still the safest approach.
Sports director Mike Davies, meanwhile, adjusted as organized sports ground to a halt in the spring. No hockey, no lacrosse, no football, no softball ... instead, he shared stories about the people and organizations who kept sports alive in the area despite the challenges of 2020.
By the summer, it was clear we would not be returning to the office in 2020, so the decision was made to shut it down and move all our operations to our home offices. This hasn’t changed the way we do things, and our team continues to cover COVID-19 along with other local news, sports and more each day.
Readership has been strong. Our print circulation remains stable, and we had more than 29 million pageviews at thepeterboroughexaminer.com in 2020. People clearly needed daily updates on their community, coronavirus and otherwise, and they turned to us for that.
Our staff has weathered the challenges of 2020. Here, they describe it in their own words.
Joelle Kovach
The COVID -19 pandemic certainly changed a lot of how city hall was covered in 2020: I went home to write from my basement, for starters, with two school-aged children at home with me during the lockdown. Writing on deadline while trying to help them with remote learning was a challenge.
When council meetings resumed in April, they were online. That meant sitting in my basement watching a livestreamed meeting while my husband and children’s dinners and bedtime happened upstairs. Learning to cover stories without leaving the house was also an eye-opener: I was surprised how many stories I could uncover using just a phone and the internet.
Marissa Lentz
I had just begun at The Peterborough Examiner a week prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a new reporter, I was eager to make my mark, but first I had to find a starting point.
Those first days were interesting, having to change reporting styles and strategies to find issues now buried below a mountain of COVID-19 concern. To say the least, it has a been an interesting first year at The Peterborough Examiner.
Matthew P. Barker
COVID-19 saw a change in how we, as reporters, did our jobs, from the way we gathered information and interviews to seeing how people related to one another. It saw in-person interviews turn to less personal over-the-phone or video calls.
People seemed so much further away, and reporting was impacted, especially for social issues, where relating to people face-to-face was obstructed when talking about personal issues like homelessness, substance use and poverty.
Reporting from the second lockdown will be easier now that reporters have overcome the hurdles of the first lockdown.