I’m tired, folks.

I’m tired of having to reinvent every little thing just to get to the very first stage of making anything.

I’m tired of it taking ten times longer to edit a podcast to elide the awkwardness of a half second time delay – and of how unnatural that delay makes every Zoom meeting.

I’m tired of my house!

I’m tired of putting a brave face on it.

Something will emerge. Something, probably, better. Leaner, kinder, smarter. (I will emerge none of these things.)

But mark this time. And acknowledge – own – that it sucks.

We’re making despite, not because.

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I went freelance 18 months ago and also became a dad to twin boys, so I’m used to spending a lot of time at home, but lockdown created new challenges, like how to convert the summer issue of a retail client’s print magazine to digital, as their stores were shut. 

With some invaluable help from a colleague, I nailed it and produced something that I’m really proud of – the client said it was their best ever edition. I might even show it to my boys, after I’ve finished reading them The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the eighth time today.

Hope.

That’s the word I’ve heard so often over recent months. It’s such a small word but the expectations are enormous.

Interviewing volunteers, staff in caring roles and members of the public who have stepped up to help others, I’ve learned they have all had to re-think what they do and how they do it. Doing things in different ways has become the new norm.

It’s the same in publishing.

Nothing has changed – we’re still telling stories and sharing news – but the way we do it has transformed.

We’re innovative, agile and forward thinking. Yes, there’s hope for us all.

Silver linings of a terrifying global pandemic

1) Switching our subscriber classes onto Zoom and meeting readers in Las Vegas, São Paulo and Athens in the first session.

2) Receiving an overdue kick up the arse to produce a digital version.

3) The delighted reactions of readers to the issue they received at the height of the crisis which, thanks to our slow news ethos, contained not a single word about Covid-bloody-19. 

4) Signing off the new issue from our spare rooms and, instead of the usual long commute home, walking straight to the garden for a treble G&T.