Mid-last week, did your Morning Catch emails start to look wonky, showing a beta-like menu instead of the usual, user-friendly headlines and more? 

And when you went to our websites, were the navigation and layout troubled, like “Hey, what’s up here? Is it on my end? Or have the sites changed permanently for the worse?” 

Did you hopefully see our series of advisories aimed at reassuring all, this was not a new look and that we hoped you like it; rather, it was maintenance and we were getting there, but still needing, and being thankful for, everyone’s patience. 

If your experience on our sites was uncharacteristically confusing and frustrating, we were right there with you. But worse, because it was on us to get it all back to normal.

 No pressure!

There were a few good points amid the growing pains:

1. The construction work was needed and long developed, so to have gotten to this point, though a painful start, was a milestone, or stepping stone to getting on with our round the clock business of serving our readers and advertisers.  

Maybe some of us got a little less sleep, but through our bleary eyes, we could see the horizon, a return to normalcy for you and us. So we kept going. That is how you get there. And we think we mostly have.

2. Our in-house teamwork was exemplary, like we were all in a 24-hour or so nor’easter and just had to cooperate and communicate amid the storm. We were our best for one another. And if we were that strong then, it speaks volumes as to how we work the rest of the time, as a team of many talents and a single goal of delivering the local news, arts and more online and in print in a timely, accurate fashion. 

3. You: Hearing your reactions and queries on Facebook and in our email boxes showed you are checking in at all times to us as a source of local content; we knew we were part of your day, or your evening, something you expect to be there, like turning on a TV channel. But we got to realize that in a different way than through the usual analytics. This was in real time as you encountered the issues and told us. We could see the same issues and were working on them, but to be hearing from readers at the same time, added to the urgency and underscored what we have become with our award-winning websites, part of the wheels turning in the community. And we’ll continue to work every day to keep the wheels moving. 

We thank you again, very much, for your patience.