Mahoning Matters’ Sweetwood: ‘Forget Normal. Innovate.’
Mark Sweetwood, editor at Mahoning Matters, is hanging tough. You can read more about Mark and the digital newspaper at its website.
What are some ways the COVID-19 outbreak has changed your work life?
Well, Mahoning Matters was launched in October as an office-free, work-from-wherever operation and I now miss the great coffee shops like Branch Street Coffee and Peaberry’s Cafe that we often worked from! Since I did a lot of work from home, too, that part really hasn’t changed. What really has changed is the amount of news the team has had to uncover, digest, research and publish. So many people — like my wife — went home because their jobs were closed. Journalists went home and entered a new world of even longer days and nights trying to keep up with developments.
What are some ways the COVID-19 outbreak has changed your work life?
Well, we started out as a news operation largely focused on five days a week. Now we’ve added columnists, staff, a new reporter, new partners, etc. and we’re churning out information seven days a week. We started to ask ourselves, “What do people really want to know during a pandemic?” Then we asked our audience and they had all kinds of good ideas. We’ve really worked hard to pivot to tell the pandemic story in layers: How does it affect families in real-time? What’s legal and what’s not? Why would God do this? Where can I order for dinner? Luckily, there are so many smart people in the Valley to help us focus that part of the reporting.
How about your personal life?
Personal life? What’s that? LOL. Actually, my wife Mary and I are truly fortunate to have a house that, if you had to be trapped in for a period of time, is perfect, at least for us. We’ve made Friday and Saturday nights special with cards, games, cocktails, movies, family Zoom hangouts and Dean Martin celebrity roasts. I have the perfect partner and we’ve loved that part of rediscovering the fun we can have at home. I’m getting pretty good at craft cocktails, too. And she’s now an accomplished vegan baker.
What steps are you taking to hang tough?
It would make a lousy T-shirt, but in 10 months, my team has survived the closing of The Vindicator, the launch of a start-up and a pandemic. There was no choice but to hang tough. I also have the best crew with Jess Hardin, Justin Dennis and Jeremy Harper. When we lost our beloved Mark Eckert March 29 to COVID-19, we were all devastated. And everyone stuck together, was there for each other and I can’t tell you how much of a difference that made. And our Central Office and our company was so supportive. And then we heard from so many people out there and we can never repay them for reaching out and for their kindness. I think knowing how many people out there were suffering like us, it made us even more determined to tell all of the stories out there. We’re a tough team!
What advice are you sharing with the people you love?
Take this opportunity as life has slowed down a bit to reconnect. Go through your phone and randomly check in with folks you haven’t connected with for a while. End any feuds. Perform random acts of kindness. Be generous. Have Zoom family get-togethers. I think we can all get through this best if we are just a little kinder to one another. It’s good for your soul. If the lesson we learn is “You can literally just be kind and make a huge difference” at least we can take something of value from this horrible disease.
Any advice for a startup business like yours?
I think almost every business that has operated during the pandemic has rewritten its game plan several times in the past couple of months. At a news site, you are rewriting as you are doing it because there is no downtime. Going forward, I think all businesses need to embrace the same radical outlook. Forget “normal.” All of those ideas you had about changes that you kept putting off? Do them. Go forward. Innovate. Find out what your customers need and want. And then exceed their expectations. This is a time to hang tough and be bold!