As the novel Coronavirus pandemic hit California in mid-March, Sonoma State University and their media outlets began adapting to the colossal challenges that came with it. The Sonoma State STAR had to make timely decisions about the future of the newspaper, and as a team, we came to the conclusion that the paper must continue. The STAR has since transitioned to a completely digital format as the pandemic continues to ravage, but the changeover was no walk in the park.

Announcing online schooling for the rest of the academic year may have been a relief to some, but the STAR team was faced with a massive new wave of challenges. As the school acclimated to health and safety regulations for COVID-19, the STAR had to acclimate alongside. Instead of having our typical in-person meetings and class discussions, we had to start from scratch–tweaking all procedures in order to suit the new online classroom. Prior to this pandemic, students and faculty could see members of the STAR team around campus talking to students, taking photographs, and teaming together for collaborative creations. Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, students from the STAR are no longer allowed to perform any in-person activities, so the ability of easily accessing students and faculty for interviews on campus was almost completely lost.

In order to keep local, the STAR team had to become online detectives, finding local sources and contacting them digitally–all while staying in accordance with the health and safety laws. In the beginning, it was extremely difficult to keep our paper local, as reporters were sent back home to stay safe from the virus. Cancellations of activities and events happening around Sonoma county also made it difficult to find local topics to write about. This became tough for our paper to not only stay local, but inform our readers about current events. However, the STAR was able to overcome this, and found ways to keep our paper intriguing at a local level.

As the pandemic continued and made a harsh impact on Sonoma County, the use of technology and online platforms became a main priority. The STAR previously had an online appearance, but we knew this was going to become our main focus during the pandemic. The team now had to renovate our online format, including teaching new ideas to reporters to keep our online appearance alive.

The STAR is student-run, and we are passionate about providing student insight on local events and news stories. We still wanted to continue to do this, despite the challenges the pandemic thrust at us. We have seen newspaper and news outlet sales dropping continuously throughout the past year, starting with the alarming drop in 2017. “Print newspapers [marked] a 700,000 drop compared to 2016,” according to Journalism.

Most newspaper outlets have either downsized their available print copies or have completely halted their paper issues, but the STAR battled in order to keep publishing throughout.

The STAR wants to thank our readers for following us throughout this journey, as well as professors, faculty members, and surrounding community members for cooperating with our team of reporters to create new content. We know that the past year has been difficult for everyone, but we believe that producing a local newspaper is of the utmost importance and we could not do it without the support we receive from the SSU community.

The STAR welcomes news tips, ideas for stories, and letters to the editor at [email protected].