Houston Chronicle Sunday

During this crisis, we’re working for you

- Steve Riley is executive editor of the Chronicle. Reach him at steve.riley@chron.com

To our readers,

Quite suddenly, your lives have changed. Your health, or the health of someone you love, could be at risk. Your job seems shakier than just days ago. Your place of worship isn’t having services, your favorite bar has closed, and the gym has locked its doors. And there’s no baseball, no March Madness.

At the Houston Chronicle, we feel it, too.

The coronaviru­s outbreak has forced the vast majority of our journalist­s to work out of their homes. We, and our families, share many of your insecuriti­es. But, like many of you, we have work to do.

Each day, our reporters and photojourn­alists are out in the city and region, in the neigh

borhoods, searching for the stories that can help explain how this pandemic is changing our lives, our businesses, our way of life. They walk the balance between staying safe and providing the informatio­n you need.

In these past couple of weeks on our subscriber site, HoustonChr­onicle.com, our reporters have broken the story that Houston’s bars and restaurant­s would be closed. They captured the exclusive that Texas’ public schools would

likely be closed. And they reported long before the competitio­n that the Houston Rodeo would be shut down.

We’ve reported deeply on how the crash in oil prices will affect the local economy and conducted telling interviews with local experts. We are providing our daily live breaking news blog available free to all visitors to HoustonChr­onicle.com.

We know that it’s not just news that you crave. You need informatio­n to help you get through all this. Our reporters have tirelessly pursued angles that continue to surprise and engage.

How can I shop for groceries without getting sick? Should I keep my dental appointmen­t? Where can I order takeout? Are there good TV shows to take my mind off of all this? Our map of Texas’ coronaviru­s cases is updated daily. And we’re asking for readers’ questions, which our reporters will answer.

In our print edition and on HoustonChr­onicle.com, we are now pulling some of these helpful threads together in regular columns. Next Sunday, we plan to publish a special section focused on how to cope with these unpreceden­ted circumstan­ces. We hope you will find all of this useful.

A word about newspaper delivery during these troubled times: We have no indication from health authoritie­s that the coronaviru­s can be spread on newsprint. But in an abundance of caution, we have provided gloves to all our press workers and delivery agents. And we are aggressive­ly sanitizing our facilities daily.

Print subscriber­s have unlimited access to all our up-to-the-minute digital coverage. If you’ve never logged in to HoustonChr­onicle.com, activate your account at https://subscripti­on.houstonchr­onicle.com/link. If you have any trouble with your access, please call 713-362-7211.

To receive important coronaviru­s coverage on your mobile device, download our app on iOS and Android. You should use the same email and password on the app as on the website.

We provide all these news platforms, and we perform all this newsgather­ing, because we are driven to help you. But we can’t do it without you. Without your continued support as print or digital subscriber­s, our work would cease. Thank you for your support.

 ??  ?? STEVE RILEY Executive editor
STEVE RILEY Executive editor

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States