The EAST COBBER magazine has suspended publication of its May issue.
In a note that went out Thursday to “our valued readers and advertisers,” publisher Cynthia Rozzo said she decided to “go dark” due to “the turmoil that COVID-19 has caused over the past few weeks.”
She said that on May 1, “we will then evaluate the situation and determine if a June/July print edition will be viable.” East Cobb News has left a message with Rozzo seeking further comment.
The EAST COBBER, which she founded in 1993, is published 11 times a year, with a combined June-July issue. Each issue typically runs from 44 to 52 pages and includes community news and information and focuses advertising on specific types of businesses, including restaurants, private schools, pets and home and garden.
Most of the magazine’s advertisers are small, local businesses, especially in personal care and home and lifetstyle sectors, as well as financial institutions, dentists and restaurants.
Rozzo wrote in her note Thursday that “we don’t take the health risks of COVID-19 lightly, and you shouldn’t either. But we also recognize the impact that these restrictions are having on our economy.”
Rozzo said her publication will continue to provide “useful and relevant information” on its social media platforms and her weekly newsletter also will continue. “Advertising opportunities are available to those businesses that want to maintain their brand awareness.”
Across the country local news publications and magazines have been deeply affected by the economic fallout from the Coronavirus crisis.
Depending heavily on advertising and in an industry that’s been in deep decline for nearly two decades, some newspapers have shuttered altogether, and others have laid off and furloughed staff and cut the number of days they publish.
Last month, The Marietta Daily Journal reduced its print edition from seven to five days a week, and is on a Tuesday-Saturday publishing schedule.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that a larger portion of our audience turns first to our digital products,” the paper announced April 8, writing that ” a new set of circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic hastened a change.”
The MDJ had taken down its paywall after the COVID-19 crisis began, but that went back up Friday.
Rozzo had planned a Pet Palooza event with the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA May 17 but that has been cancelled.
Rozzo also started the EAST COBBER parade that is held each September along Johnson Ferry Road and includes a community festival at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. She did not mention the status of that event in her note on Thursday.
Rozzo, an Ohio native, is a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year and in 2018 was named the first Business Person of the Year by the East Cobb Business Association.
“Let there be no doubt, we will be back, and we look forward to the time when we can share that with each of you,” she said in her note.
Related Content
- East Cobb business openings/changes 4.30.20
- The East Cobb Open for Business Directory
- East Cobb News COVID-19 Resource Page
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