It was March 13, 2020, when Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton asked our web development team to add a COVID-19 category and Coronavirus Crisis section page for our website. We knew we would need it.
In the year since, we’ve posted more than 1,400 stories there.
Noozhawk reporters have watched every Santa Barbara County public health briefing and Board of Supervisors presentation on COVID-19, and spent countless hours clicking through database dashboards.
As the vaccination effort reaches more and more people, and local virus transmission decreases, we think — and hope — that Santa Barbara County is getting an upper hand on the pandemic.
Throughout, Noozhawk has tried to be forward-thinking in our crisis coverage, to help readers make plans and assess the risks of different activities.
That’s what we’re trying to do by launching a weekly COVID-19 email newsletter now.
We hope it will contextualize the day-to-day numbers and policy updates, and provide a valuable community resource to readers.
As we move forward, we may not always publish daily stories about the pandemic, like we do now, and a weekly digest will be a convenient way to stay in the loop and get all the important updates in one place.
The content of the newsletter will adapt over time, and we’re hoping you, our readers, will help us keep it interesting and relevant.
Vaccinations are the big issue right now, but in the coming months, attention will probably expand more to travel, how all kinds of businesses reopen, and what the next school year will look like.
You can sign up to receive the newsletter in your email inbox, for free, by clicking here. They’ll go out on Wednesdays, but here’s this week’s debut version.
Our Coronavirus Crisis section coverage, and all other content, are always available to read for free without a paywall, and reader support helps keep it that way.
Sign up for the free A.M. Report while you’re here, to get Noozhawk’s top stories delivered each morning to your email inbox.
Please email us at news@noozhawk.com to give feedback on the newsletter, send questions you want answered, and ask for information you think should be included.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.