Some difficult news to see from publisher of the Newtown Bee, R. Scudder Smith: the 143- year-old publication will cease printing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The special message read in part:
But, while there won’t be a paper in your hand, we will still have the news on our website and on additional social media, including Facebook.
Along with family members, I made a decision to combat the horrific coronavirus by decreasing our staff, retaining a necessary small number of employees to produce the paper, for we were determined to bring the printed news of Newtown to its citizens and a digital online edition of the antiques paper.
This small stalwart staff, of whom three had fought personal battles with cancer, has for the last two weeks put forth great effort to do this work, but we were suddenly brought to a standstill when we saw the number of rapidly expanding number of cases and deaths in Connecticut. And so, we brought ourselves to the realization that the most important action we could take was to protect those people who had been coming to work and risking the possibility of contracting this feared virus.
