Amid crisis, we focus on what matters to you
A big news event always changes something. It rarely changes everything, like COVID-19.
Life-transforming stories demand a major response from the news organization you rely on. I want to walk you through the changes we’ve made, and how we’re approaching the unparalleled weeks and months ahead.
Our entire newsroom has been mobilized to tackle the major story lines and threads of the pandemic. Columnist Bruce Arthur breaking from his usual beat to explore every facet of the pandemic, from people to policy. Our investigations team on how this extraordinary time is impacting our city, province, country and economy. We know there’s a hunger for good to counterbalance the difficulties, so Emma Teitel is turning some of her columns to things that can make us happy, while reporter Gilbert Ngabo is making reporting on kindness his beat.
We’ll report news as it happens, you can depend on that. But we’re going far beyond that.
Here are some major themes we’re reporting on for you.
Accountability: A global crisis is a sharp reminder of the necessary role of government, good citizenship and policy. Every little decision and communication counts in a large way toward saving lives and salvaging the economy. A team of journalists from Vancouver to Ottawa to Toronto to Halifax is committed to ensuring our government and systems are up to the crisis.
Science, health, data: Scientific knowledge and good data are essential to aid understanding and encourage an informed, rational response to the anxiety of a pandemic. This is a different kind of accountability reporting, one that informs government response and our own personal behaviour. Unlike many news events, every single one of us is a central player in this. Our individual behaviour is crucial to the survival of others.
Reflecting your experience: What is it like to live amid a pandemic? What happens to our cities, our neighbourhoods, ourselves?
Who are the vulnerable we most struggle to protect? We want to bring the human story to the numbers that health authorities report daily. This event is social, personal, physical and economic. We’re here to reflect these experiences so, alone in our homes, self-isolating or social distancing, we know we’re in it together.
Finances: The economic impact of a near-global shutdown is staggering. While no one knows where this will end, it will hit everything from investments and retirements to neighbourhood character and personal and business bankruptcies. This is a longterm story we will be devoting a substantial team to, across Canada, for a long time to come.
Help: We’ve never done this before. We’re relearning how to live, changing how we interact, coping suddenly with either the loss of a shared workspace and colleagues or worse, staggering through being suddenly out of a job altogether. There are so many questions it can be paralyzing. But we’re here for you, helping guide you through everything from how to access help after a sudden job loss to how to cook in a pandemic. Keep asking us questions. We’ll keep reporting on answers. We’re with you through it all.
Kindness, stars and heroes: Difficult times can bring out the best in people and we want to make sure those deeds and people are seen. Small gestures that mean a lot to an individual, or the efforts of those battling on the front lines of health care and research to save lives — these are faces of inspiration, of leadership, of kindness. This is the best in us. That’s an equal part of this story.
Diversions: Many of us will, fortunately, get through these next months healthy and financially OK but bored, far from the people and pastimes that gave us meaning. We’re doing what we can to make sure we have an opportunity to stay connected in creative and, yes, fun ways. Exclusively for the Star and its readers, some of the most creative people in the city are making everything from isolation exercise routines to playlists to secret recipes from their (mostly shuttered, for now) restaurants. We’re asking you to send us your own, original mini-songs and we’re not stopping there. We may be stuck inside but we don’t have to be stuck without the joy of creativity, and each other.
Understanding of the virus is evolving and we’ll also evolve how we tackle this collective crisis for you in real time.
Like most of you, we’re doing it from our homes. Aware of our responsibility regarding social distancing as well as journalism, we somehow flipped a switch and began producing our digital and print journalism entirely remotely. Current journalism is a colossal clash of fantastically urgent tasks, deadlines and a million opportunities to mess up. Doing it all remotely is a miracle beyond the production of the print paper, which we used to call “the daily miracle” for its own implausibility.
We’re living what you’re living. Some of us are in selfisolation, all struggling to find new ways and space to work — there are lots of kitchen tables and bedroom backdrops in our video meetings, the only ways we see each other now. Like you, we’re dealing with these new layers of complexities. We’re just doing it while hurtling at the biggest story of our time.
There’s another change. Because of the crucial need for trustworthy, responsible information, we have taken select public-interest coronavirus stories from behind our paywall. It is the right thing to do when the actions of every one of us impact all of us.
Doing the right thing always feels good. But such are the times that doing the right thing now can harm our future viability. The media industry is in a deep financial crisis that has only worsened with the outbreak. Journalism can be staggeringly expensive, and responsible, exclusive, accountability journalism is the most expensive of all.
A world without it is far more costly. For those who can find it in their budgets amid these very difficult times, please consider subscribing to ensure public-service journalism that’s there for you can continue to exist.
The need for local, responsible, compassionate, aggressive, in-depth reporting that demands accountability is clear in times like these. Subscription by some helps ensure vital information can be available to all.
Thank you for your support.
Are we missing something? We want to hear from you — please reach out to us at social@torstar.ca