What a difference a week makes.
Were we too slow?
Weren’t we paying attention?
Should we have been on this weeks ago?
We are 3 decades late on Climate Change.
Are we 3 weeks late on COVID-19?
Time will tell.
What we do know is that last week Santa Monica College (SMC) and the SMC Corsair newspaper were business as usual. We put out a print edition on Tuesday 10 March. After the paper was done some of us ate chips ‘n guac and watched Spotlight in the newsroom. 48 hours later, on Thursday the 12th, we had our final meeting in the newsroom. We’ll be working remotely now until at least June.
TUESDAY 10 MARCH, 9:18 am — new Corsair photo editor Marco Pallotti works on a story with previous photo editor Yasmin Tehrani.TUESDAY 10 MARCH, 11:26 am — Corsair Copy Editor/Opinion Editor Evan Minniti (lower-right) leads a read-through of Corsair content.TUESDAY 10 MARCH, 11:32 am — managing editor Jack Hughes and editor-in-chief Jackie Sedley share a light moment on a busy day.TUESDAY 10 MARCH, 5:56 pm — EIC Jackey Sedley (center-bottom) makes a final adjustment to The Corsair before sending files off to the printer at 6:00 pm. Around Sedley are, clockwise from lower-left: Kiran Baez, writer/photographer, Dana Binfert, social media editor, Jack Hughes, managing editor, Izzy Colindres, writer/photographer, Marco Pallotti, photo editor, Fernando Duran, multimedia editor.TUESDAY 10 MARCH, 7:14 pm — Movie night (Spotlight) in the newsroom. You can see Carolyn’s rubber boots on the right – it was raining that day. We didn’t know that the next morning the COVID-19 virus would be pouring over everyone’s plans.THURSDAY 12 MARCH 10:07 am — what the Corsair newsroom looked like at our last meeting there.
Click on any image to see it full screen
Images below photographed with a 14mm f1.8 Sigma lens + Sony a9
The New Newsroom
We occupied the Corsair Newsroom for 4 weeks. And then, maybe we should have expected it, but we didn’t, the newsroom, like so many others around the country, was closed. Here are images of our virtual newsroom from a staff meeting on Tuesday 17 March:
Jackie Sedley, Editor-in-Chief, 9:52 am PDTJackie Sedley, Editor-in-Chief, 9:56:24 am PDTGlenn Zucman, Writer/Photographer, 9:56:51 am PDTDana Binfet, Social Media Editor, 9:58 am PDTAleah Antonio, News Editor, 9:59:06 am PDTFernando Duran, Multimedia Editor, 9:59:29 am PDTJessica Harper, Staff Writer, 9:59:49 am PDTChrissa Loukas, Staff Writer, 10:00:04 am PDTYasmin Tehrani, Senior Staff Photographer, 10:00:18 am PDTEmely Chavarria, Staff Writer, 10:00:43 am PDTJames Shippy, Staff Writer, 10:01:01 am PDTValentin Contreras, Staff Photographer, 10:01:30 am PDTDrew Andersen, Staff Writer, 10:01:40 am PDTClyde Bates, Staff Photographer, 10:02 am PDTParis Wise, Staff Writer, 10:05 am PDTMarco Pallotti, Photo Editor, 10:11 am PDTCarolyn Burt, Digital Culture, 10:12 am PDTRebecca Hogan, Staff Writer, 10:30 am PDTTele Max, 10:31 am PDTMissael Soto, Staff Writer/Photographer, 10:32:39 am PDTJack Hughes, Managing Editor, 10:32:48 am PDTBennet Barone, Staff Writer, 10:34 am PDT
The New Normal
And so the staff of The Corsair, the students of Santa Monica College, and the people of California, America, and The World embark on our nobody-knows-how-many-months-long new normal of living with COVID-19.
New Newsroom – my new home newsroom in Monterey Park, CA. It’s comfy. Which is good, since I’ll be here for months.
