By Betty J. Ramsey

While COVID-19 is a global pandemic, the impact locally has been intensely felt. In the past few weeks, every business in our community has been forced to make some tough decisions. Some businesses have reduced their hours, others have been forced to shut down completely, and some have had to drastically change the way they conduct business in order to follow social distancing guidelines. All have been impacted by COVID-19, and we are no exception.

As newspapers across the country have experienced a sharp decline in local advertising due to nonessential businesses having to close and events being canceled, we have also been affected. Just this past week, more than 1,000 newspapers across the country have made the business decision to reduce their print publication days, terminate or furlough employees, cut employee compensation or a combination of these as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For us, we have made the difficult decision to suspend publication of the Yorktown Independent following this week’s edition. This was an urgent and direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the related shutdown of the local economy. On the other side of this economic crisis, we will re-evaluate and hope to see you again soon.

There are many ways we can support each other during this unprecedented time — order takeout from a local restaurant, get your oil changed while practicing social distancing, order from a local business online, the list goes on. The choices we make now, and in the coming months, will make a difference — we are in this together.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to share the stories of Yorktown. So farewell for now dear readers, from all of us at the Yorktown Independent, until we meet again.

 

Betty J. Ramsey is the publisher of the Yorktown Independent. She can be reached at Publisher@YorktownIndependent.com.