To Our Valued Readers,
To say we are living in unique and uncertain times is certainly putting it mildly. The consequences of the current Coronavirus situation are adversely affecting our state, our country and the entire world in very difficult and saddening ways.
I’m sure our readers are aware that most public events have been canceled throughout the nation, including of course, those planned for the near future here in Greenville. Even local farmers’ markets have been stopped for the time being, simply because they typically attract a gathering of crowds. In addition, some of our local businesses have temporarily closed, especially restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, several of which serve as additional distribution points for non-mailed extra copies of the Community Connector. We know that many of our advertisers are being affected as well...especially those who may have been forced to temporarily lay off valued employees. And now, the business of our publication joins them as we are forced to face our own unique set of challenges.
Due to all the local cancellations and closings, most of the information we had planned to feature in the April issue of the Community Connector is no longer valid. This also includes information related to some of our advertisers. Because of these issues, we have made the difficult but proper decision to cancel distribution of our April issue. Since the content is typically submitted to the printer almost a month before it arrives in the home, it had already been printed before city-wide shutdowns began occurring. Although we will take a sizeable hit on our printing costs, stopping the April publication was the right thing to do. Being among our tens of thousands of readers, you should only receive information that is up to date and valid. The integrity of our editorial and advertising content has always been one of our primary goals, so while this decision is painful, it’s the correct one to make.
Going forward, we are planning for our May issue. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that the current situation may resolve itself enough to allow some...or most...events to resume in May. We also recognize that everything may be on hold yet again, so this is a situation that we will be monitoring and as needed, we will keep you posted. In the meantime, if you are directly responsible for helping us publicize one of your regular monthly events, please reach out to us as soon as possible with those May event details.
These are challenging times for all of us, but I know we are all working through it. Our staff looks optimistically forward to having the Community Connector resume mailed delivery to your home in May.
We hope you and your loved ones are able to find some peace as time allows. Please stay safe.