Just when, like most lakesiders, I thought my December calendar couldn’t possibly get any more complicated, an email from the powers that be at the Guadalajara Reporter office delineating the early deadlines for the month’s final two issues threw me right into a full-blown tizzy. No doubt the news of these early deadlines will have a similar effect on the planners and reporters of local organizational, church and cultural events.
Producing a newspaper, even a weekly, requires a good deal of organization to move information from the source to the printed page. Normally the process fits almost neatly into the not-quite-normal working hours of semi-normal five- to seven-day weeks.
The staff of this newspaper, the officials of the communities it serves, and the representatives of the groups, organizations and churches who submit information about their events work well within the deadlines that keep the schedule moving.
During 48 weeks of each year information arrives early in the week and the staff converts it into a printable format that the presses transform into a newspaper late in the week – just in time to be delivered to sales points by Friday afternoon.
It works perfectly until major holidays – Easter, Christmas and the New Year – tangle the process with time off for the staff and the printer. Then, earlier deadlines prevail so that readers can purchase the paper right on schedule on Friday.
Please clip and save the following deadlines for those submitting information for the Laguna Chapalac and the Ribera Arts Review columns.
December 13 – All information must be received before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, December 9.
December 20 – Information must be received before 5 p.m. on Monday, December 15
December 27 – Information must be received before noon on Thursday, December 18
January 3 – Information must be received before 9 a.m. on Friday December 26.
YIKES – right? These early deadlines will sure keep us on our toes in the next few weeks; still it’s the only way to allow the Guadalajara office staff to be home with their families on the late December holidays. We really need your help to pull off this feat of magic!