Salisbury Independent Mission story March 2022

 

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/seafood-houses-desperately-seek-relief-on-guest-worker-visas,73121?

 

It’s crucial that the newspapers in our Delmarva group join forces whenever possible to deliver authoritative news stories of wide-ranging interest. When an alliance of seafood packing houses held a news conference to talk about a desperate need for immigration de-regulation to fill work positions, deadlines, conflicting news stories and the news event’s remote location made day-of coverage impossible. Cambridge-Dorchester stringer Debra Messick bounced back with a deeply reported and wholly enlightening story that served readers of all three Maryland weeklies. Here in Salisbury, interest in the issue is high, as restaurants and seafood distributors are reliant on these packing houses and their production. Debra’s story was better than any of the shallow dog-and-pony show coverage of our competitors. Readers responded with notice and appreciation.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gEm8pYFRS_ziqnpqPgBaShoDFqDW65mJ/view?usp=sharing

Crisfield-Somerset County Times Mission story March 2022

 Until 1996 Somerset County was the only county in Maryland that did not have an 18-hole golf course. Every year since then Great Hope Golf Course has lost money with the taxpayers covering the red ink. While the county’s financial audit was favorable overall (and reported separately), buried in it were the results of golf course operations which are extracted for this simple fact-based story which frankly the public has come to expect year after year.

 

https://baytobaynews.com/somerset/stories/great-hope-golf-course-loses-less-money-during-pandemic-year,74220

 

 

Delaware State News Mission stories March 2022

 

Our mission story this month is our team coverage of the 60^th anniversary of the Storm of 1962.

 Anniversary stories must recap the historic event, but also find angles to make the news new. Our team coverage did that!  Kudos to reporters Joe Edelen, Mike Finney, Rachel Sawicki and Glenn Rolfe.

 Stories over the weekend focused on memories from those who witnessed the three-day nor’easter firsthand decades ago to experts urging action to address climate change and prevent severe damage from future storms and officials outlining the need for emergency preparation. Another story looked at how the storm, which destroyed miles of oceanfront homes and killed seven people in Delaware, set beach replenishment in motion. A breakout box from our 50^th anniversary coverage was updated to reflect storms of record through the last 60 years. (As residents of this coastal state, that’s not a list we like to see grow!)

 The coverage had a great tie-in with the Opinion section each day. In the days prior to the anniversary, Opinion Coordinator Lee Hoover ran the Question of the Day to solicit memories from those who witnessed the storm. That lead to colorful, personal letters on the subject, many with photos, for the days surrounding the anniversary.

 Brooke Schultz’s online presentation of the stories and photo galleries was excellent! We had then-and-now photos of heavily damaged and flooded areas, historic images (some just released to the public given the anniversary), documents from the governor’s addresses at the time and our original storm section, published in the days after the historic Ash Wednesday storm struck.

 We dedicated many pages in the Sunday paper to the historic images and then-and-now comparisons. (Layout thanks to Darin Powell.)

 The newsroom was happy to hear Yvonne Kirksey relay some immediate feedback during our staff meeting the week that the coverage published: Yvonne took a call from Mrs. Jester after she read the Monday, March 7 edition and saw one of the Delaware Public Archives images we published.

 There, she found a picture of her father’s house, the Everett Johnson property that had floated three miles from its original location to land in the marsh near the Slaughter and Cedar creeks. “She was really thrilled to see it because she never saw the image until we ran it!” Yvonne shared the image with Mrs. Jester. 😊

 Original landing page from the March 5 weekend: https://baytobaynews.com/storm-coverage/

 News and opinion content:

https://baytobaynews.com/storm-of-1962/index.html

 

 

Banner Mission story March 2022

 

Banner Mission story

The Cambridge- South Dorchester High School 2022 senior class play “Into the Woods” is a great example in March of our mission. The story and captivating photo by Dave Ryan grabbed readers as the front page of the March 30 issue. (Kudos to Lena Ellwanger for a creative layout that allowed for many of Dave’s photos and student faces in limited print space.)

This story has a lot of elements: Tremendous volunteer support in all aspects, such as in producing costumes and sets. Families make adjustments to their schedules to get the kids to and from practice for a couple of months. An amazing amount of advertising support in the play's printed program, and not least of all, excellent attendance at five shows over the weekend.

The Banner supports that effort with front-page coverage, actually for North Dorchester's play also, because it's a community-wide project that means a lot to people. I mean, let's face it, this isn't exactly a cultural hotspot, but folks really turn out for these productions. In keeping with the Banner's goal of recognizing those who are excited about being active in the community, we include a full list of names, with the cast, crew, and top donors, to show how at INI we value our readers as neighbors and contributors to local causes. I think this kind of coverage helps to distinguish our product from the competitors. We give it the prominence it deserves, while highlighting all those who participate, not only the stars of the show.

As we’ve seen, in a world of bad news, good news is always welcome.

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/cambridge-south-dorchester-high-school-presents-into-the-woods,74807?