Policy Corner: Building a front page in the age of COVID-19

Prior to the onset of the coronavirus, crafting the front page every day had a lot to do with our long-stated mission of Big Picture/Local Focus. We'd offer you a smorgasbord of interesting, engaging, helpful and meaningful stories and photos from the world, the nation, the state and the suburbs. Maybe not always the world. Maybe not always the state. But always the suburbs.

Today, things are very different. But to some extent, our mission is exactly the same.

Much of what we publish today is driven by the pandemic or is in some way touched by it. Just about everything happening right now is somehow touched by it. What we have changed over time since the outbreak began is our approach to the pandemic itself.

We don't want to hit you over the head with soul-crushing news every day. Sure, news of the growing spread of the virus and the number of people succumbing to it are important. That has its place.

But so do stories about how we're all coping with the stay-at-home order; how those of us who still must leave home to work are coping with it; how people are working together (employing social distancing measures, of course) to raise money, donate masks and other equipment; how people are trying to raise spirits and maintain some sense of normalcy in a world turned upside down.

We try to provide a balance every day of all of these facets of life during COVID-19. And we also aim to provide you with something completely unrelated to the virus on Page 1 every day, because we know many people need to escape it now and then.

Just as we do.