Expect ELi to Be Quiet Until April 12

The ELi team will be taking a much-needed publication break from Saturday, April 3, through Sunday, April 11. The only exception we anticipate making, barring emergencies, is for Andrew Graham reporting on Trojan basketball, and both the girls and the boys are headed to the state championships.

In past years, ELi has similarly ramped down for this week in April, which corresponds with Spring Break for East Lansing Public Schools and sees few governmental meetings, including no Council and no School Board meetings. Last year, we did not take any break and just kept publishing due to the pandemic. The City and school calendars were thrown off by the shutdowns, and we felt an obligation to continue providing news coverage since we were learning new things about the virus every day.

A year into this thing, we understand that mitigation efforts like masking and physical distancing are effective in slowing the spread of Covid-19. Vaccination efforts are also underway in our area and across the country.

A year later, we are also really tired. The entire ELi team is in need of a break. You might remember that we tried to close down for a long weekend in early March, but the news cycle did not permit Alice and me to really take a step back.

Our reporting and editing teams have been pumping out the quality news stories that you read at a furious pace. During just the week of Mar. 21 through Mar. 27, we published 20 articles, despite our general goal of producing 5 to 10 pieces of original reporting for East Lansing per week.

There is also all the work that we do behind the scenes to keep ELi running, from holding and attending meetings, to dealing with donor questions, to developing and delivering our first-ever paper edition, to responding to countless emails and phone calls from community members in search of information and help.

We plan to take this time to recharge and rejuvenate so that, on our return, we can continue to provide you the top quality news you deserve and you have come to expect. We anticipate that our next break will be around Independence Day. Thank you for your understanding and your continued support.