Traveling mercies

They visit even magazines in transition | Mindy Belz

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

One year ago our small news shop went from producing a weekly magazine to producing a biweekly one. From 48 press deadlines per year to 26. From something like 25 editorial pages per week to about 60 every two weeks. In-house this was exhilarating—and terrifying. Were we football players it would be like showing up for a game to find the field had doubled in size while our downs had been halved to two. And we had little idea, despite comments from a reader survey, what the fans would think.

For those of us who for years wrapped our lives around a press deadline that came every seven days, we lost track of time and at first floundered in our week without a press date. As the Sabbath became "a sign forever" between Yahweh and the people of Israel, so 5 p.m. Thursday had been the post marking our six days of labor. Could we change and survive in a climate where bigger newspapers, better-funded magazines were weighed down by financial distress? In my first column of this new era I clung to the image of my younger self riding a sled downhill that often ended with a bloody nose.