Editor’s note: It’s a delicate juggling act indeed

We are very lucky Benoni remains such a vibrant city where sports, social and community organisations abound.

Our people love being involved and making a difference and this is what keeps clubs like Lions and Rotary going strong.

In other areas, sadly, they have closed down due to a lack of new members.

It is great to see things normalising and clubs and organisations getting back to real meetings, inductions and other business of the day (mostly socialising – which we all missed out on big time thanks to Covid).

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Our What’s On column is looking plump again and invitations to events are coming into the newsroom thick and fast.

It is at these gatherings of the ordinary folk of the town who are (often) doing extraordinary things that the best stories find the light, and where we strengthen our connection with our community.

We are not only there to eat, drink and be merry though – we know we have a job to do.

So, we leave (often after several hours at a function) with photos and a story or three, get back to our desks and package it all beautifully for print and online.

When deadline comes, it’s time for a sneak peek at the size of our newspaper for that week, and we plan accordingly.

What’s going on the front page? What do we have for page 3? How much school news do we have? What is our sports lead?

It is every editor’s dream to have too much to choose from. I have that with my Benoni team – thank you! But it also makes my job that much more mind-boggling.

Our paginations have remained low since 2020 – 12 pages at most until month-end (when we could maybe be 24 pages).

So, the juggling act begins as I’m confronted with a heap of great hard news stories and photos and even more community events, schools and sports.

We’ve had to adapt the way we would tackle a traditional City Times, which was a stock-standard 32 pages each week (BC – Before Covid).

There is nothing traditional about the current environment, so the key is to be concise, clever and a bit ruthless with content.

The point, in a nutshell, is that if your event doesn’t make it in the next week, be assured it has not been overlooked.

It is patiently waiting for its time to shine in print – maybe in a shorter format if needed.

Until then, it joins the hundreds of other stories on our vibrant website (www.benonicitytimes.co.za) and on our social media platforms.

Search your story there and share it! We know our community wants to see their stories in print, but if wishes were horses beggars would ride, as the saying goes.

We’re doing our best to accommodate everyone on the pages of your beloved City Times!

Please bear with us.

What makes it into print is certainly not tainted by favouritism. That is not our style.

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