To our dearest readers —
For the past twelve years, it has been our primary intention as a hyper local magazine to engage our community to publish content about Champaign-Urbana regarding what is happening in our city, at the moment. We always seek good ways to inform you about the amazing cultural events that take place here, our restaurants and bars, our political climate, the sports teams we cherish, and more.
Things have obviously changed for all of us, and we’re aware that our published content moving forward for the now very unforeseeable future, needs to reflect that.
We will still be publishing five days a week, with updates on the weekend. We will continue to keep everyone up to date on the current COVID-19 pandemic in C-U. As we distance ourselves from one another in the physical world, for the time being, we hope to get closer to you through storytelling, and through engaging content that is better suited to our current collective experience. As we manage this new way of living, we hope to highlight some of the people in our community who make this place such a dynamic and rewarding place to live. Now, more than ever, the people of our community deserve commendation for their work, even if most people have their work on hold.
In addition, we’ll dig up some articles from the past to remind us about where we’ve been as a magazine, and who we’ve showcased over time. And we’ll have some fun too, as our second annual March Madness Tournament will go on as planned. Just wait until you see the brackets; our thought is that if we can’t enjoy the Big Dance this year, we can still have our own fun game to keep us engaged and chuckling along the way.
Finally, we’ll be finding unique ways to praise our advertising partners as much as we are able. We don’t operate without their commitment to us, and right now, they need everyone’s support more than ever, and in a wide variety of ways. We are no exception to that.
Indeed, we are in this together. If that sounds like the thing we’d type right now, it is because it is offered without hyperbole. It is offered in community.
Please let us know if we can help answer questions, seek out information, or be of any service at all. We aren’t professional journalists, and we aren’t a newspaper, but we are deeply considerate of this city and the people that live here. We’re connected to a lot of people who might have some answers that we’re all seeking, and we’re here to participate, as you’d expect.
In solidarity,
The Smile Politely Editorial Board
Seth Fein; Patrick Singer; Jessica Hammie; Julie McClure