The Pitt News released its first print edition of the academic year on Wednesday, keeping alive a 110-year-old Pitt tradition.

But things at The Pitt News were far from normal.

Jon Moss, the student newspaper’s editor-in-chief, and Mary Rose O’Donnell, the managing editor, weren’t in the newsroom as they worked on the paper’s layout Tuesday night. Moss was in New Jersey. O’Donnell was in an Oakland apartment. The rest of the newsroom was scattered throughout dorms, apartments, and family homes.

The staff — made up of between 150 and 200 students — is working remotely, as covid-19 restrictions have shuttered their office.

Nonetheless, The Pitt News released its first issue of the year on schedule.

“We just made history. This is the first during-the-semester issue of The Pitt News that has ever been done remotely,” Moss said.

But it wasn’t easy to get the finished product.

Their layout editor experienced technical difficulties Tuesday night, forcing O’Donnell to step in and finish the layout herself.

“It was like 18 pages of content that we still needed to lay out,” she said. “Before it’s taken me three days to do 18 pages and now you want me to do it in three hours?”

Armed with a Red Bull and long-distance support from Moss and other newspaper staff, O’Donnell said she worked through the night to finish the paper. She said she wished she’d been in their newsroom, where she would’ve been surrounded by friends playing music and buying snacks.

“We knew everyone was supportive, even if they may not have been in the office with us,” she said. “You felt the good vibes from where everyone is, whatever the location.”

Working alone from her room and checking in with Moss via FaceTime, O’Donnell said she finished the paper at 2:12 a.m. on Wednesday.

In addition to adapting to remote work, The Pitt News also changed its print schedule this semester, moving from four days a week to one. The Wednesday print edition will be augmented by email newsletters on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and there’s always a writer on call to cover breaking news on campus.

“We want The Pitt News to be the place you go when you need just the facts. Making sure we get people the information they need when they need it — that’s always been the mission of the newspaper, but right now, when everything’s so crazy, it’s really important we live up to that mission,” Moss said.

In its first edition of the semester, The Pitt News has already touched on critical issues, like racial justice and the coronavirus.

Moss and a small staff also worked remotely throughout the summer. They released their annual Welcome Back Edition and New Student Guide while working remotely before the start of the academic year.

But Wednesday marked the first print issue they released during the academic year, with a full staff on board.

“This was the first one where everyone was in classes, where everyone had other things going on,” Moss said. “We had to fit this into everyone’s schedules.”

Though the newspaper is back to work, Moss said he still misses being physically present in the newsroom.

“It’s tough, because I’ve known these people for years. It’s tough on a personal level – I want to be with my friends,” he said, adding that it’s also harder to manage the staff remotely.

Though students are balancing their newspaper responsibilities with an unconventional semester, O’Donnell said everyone is eager to cover the increasing amount of news on Pitt’s campus.

“We all are really passionate about what we do. Everyone’s excited and energized by the work that we do. The workload has increased – we report the news and there’s more news happening,” she said.

Plus, O’Donnell said, working remotely and scaling back on print editions is giving The Pitt News new ways to expand.

“Our digital presence has become a lot more robust in the last few months, because it had to,” she said. “That’s an unintended upside — we’ve become strong with our digital presence.”

They’ve also launched a crowdfunding campaign to help make up for advertising losses due to the covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic collapse.

While O’Donnell said she’s hopeful they’ll return to their newsroom sometime in the spring, The Pitt News will forge ahead, no matter the circumstances.

“We’ll stay up until 2:30 in the morning. We will do what we need to do to get it done,” Moss said. “We will do whatever we have to do to make sure this community has what they need to make informed choices and to know what’s going on in the world around them. Having access to information in a timely fashion is critical and it’s something we take really seriously.”

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