There’s never been a year like 2020. There’s never been a better time to say thank you
Dear Readers:
I’ve always thought December is a good time to look ahead, rather than back — to new beginnings and new hopes and aspirations.
As we do that, I want to thank you. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for supporting journalism and your local paper. Thank you for staying informed and engaged with your community.
As you look ahead with us, we ask you to share what stories you’d like us to devote time to in the coming year. You can do so here. Your feedback, ideas and tips are invaluable, and we are listening.
Thanks to you, we were able to expand our team and increase our coverage area. We now have reporters in Greenville (Lyn Riddle) and Charleston (Caitlin Byrd) full time. We added Chris Trainor for more Columbia coverage. They came to us well respected and already deeply rooted in the communities they cover. We added Rebecca Liebson to our team to cover housing and livability issues, one of the most pressing issues facing Columbia, and Chiara Eisner to our investigative team.
You saw their impact immediately. Lyn told you the story of a mother and daughter who got COVID-19 and had to fight for their lives. Caitlin provided wall-to-wall coverage of the Nancy Mace-Joe Cunningham congressional campaign. Chris took you inside talks to build an $80 million student housing tower downtown.
Rebecca detailed how a fire occurred at Hillandale Apartments despite multiple safety violations being flagged months earlier. And Chiara exposed the cozy relationship between the state Ports Authority and a company accused of polluting the ocean with plastic.
The new staff just added to the great work being done by some of your long-time favorites, such as Sammy Fretwell and John Monk, and our terrific sports and politics teams.
We have shed light on a legislative earmark system that operates without transparency or accountability, shown how the governor ignored his health officials’ advice and misled the public about that advice, exposed how USC jumped ahead of road paving projects in underserved areas and published an exclusive environmental series on flesh-eating bacteria lurking in the ocean and how mold caused by hurricanes and flooding were crippling a small coastal town.
If it’s storytelling you like, we were there for you with “Losing Brooks,” a tragic tale of a child’s death and his parents’ failed attempts for closure, portraits of those we lost to COVID, how families struggled with separation in nursing homes and how small businesses, such as indie bookstores and an iconic pizza place, fought to stay afloat.
COVID-19 has created a huge food insecurity problem in our community. Many of our neighbors are finding it difficult to feed their families. To help, we are partnering with the United Way on a special initiative to fight food insecurity. It’s called Spread the Good, and you can help support this vital work by donating here.
Thank you again for being a subscriber, and here’s to a joyful 2021.
Brian Tolley
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 3:13 PM.
