The Hardest Part

Editorial

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At the risk of sharing too much information, the last two weeks have by far been the hardest for The Rio Times, and certainly for myself as editor and publisher. The problems started August 26th when our designer stopped answering emails halfway through the preparation of the September Print edition… which finally came out last night.

For self-therapeutic reasons I’ll recount the story, as briefly as possible. When our (ex) designer went AWOL, it meant finding a new designer, training them on the format and process of the Print edition, and because of the schedule creating a log-jam of work around our normal Tuesday night Online publishing.

It was rough but we did it, twice as many hours later and costing twice as much we got to press just one day late. I remember commenting to our fourth design consultant who checked the work of the third, that it can only go better now.

But, just as we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, picking up the new issues at the printers in time for the Friday Happy Hour event we co-promoted, another disaster. Somehow in the rush, the printers printed 5,000 copies of the wrong draft (version 6, not the final version 7).

Panic ensued as I felt the weight of lost time and printing costs (the most expensive out-of-pocket part), but after rechecking the document trail, I verified it was not our fault. Unfortunately, despite confirming the printer had started work before notification the final file was ready, they refused to cover the re-printing cost. All the while the days passing and the issue’s news becoming more dated.

After another marathon of hours worked (on Tuesday again), and paying for seventy percent of a new print run, we finally got the copies out last night. Obviously I’m still trying to get past it, this Editorial is coming out late, and there is a pile of work to catch up on, let alone the financial implications for the month.

Thank you to our advertisers for being patient. Thank you to our news team and interns for pitching in and getting quality articles completed on time, and thank you new designers for working so hard with me those days last week.

So, there is the story, I feel better for writing it, thanks for reading. The good news is we made it through this one it seems, and the sun has come out. Lessons learned: 1) don’t trust drunks and junkies, 2) find a new printer and 3) things can always get harder.