1982: a look back: At The Weekly (12/26/82)

1982: a look back

At The Weekly

1982 was a rather eventful year for The Weekly's unholy editorial troika as we did our best to provide you, dear readers, with - to coin a phrase - "a Ukrainian perspective on the news."

After Ika Koznarska Casanova jumped ship in December 1981 to hook-up with Suchasnist, the we'll-come-out-when-we-want-to Ukrainian-language magazine, her position at The Weekly was taken up on January 18 by Marta Kolomayets who blew in from the Windy City ready to leave her mark on Ukrainian journalism. She didn't even bristle when told that all newcomers to the staff have to fetch coffee for the others for two whole years.

This was also the year that our editor Roma Sochan Hadzewycz went through something of an identity crisis. And who could blame her. She kept receiving mail addressed to Mr. Roma Sochan Hadzewycz, or Roman or Mr. Hadzewycz. By far the worst offenders were the high-brows uptown at the Ukrainian Institute of America, who insisted on calling her - now get this - MR. ROMAN SOCHAN HADKEVYCH! With a $1,000 per annum membership fee, you'd think that someone at the UIA would know the name and sex of the editor of the newspaper that publicizes and covers many of its events.

So, please, people, the editor is a lady.

In other Weekly news, George B. Zarycky and Marta Kolomayets were promoted in April. Mr. Zarycky is now an associate editor and Ms. Kolomayets is an assistant editor. She still gets the coffee, however.

On July 4, The Weekly adopted a new flag - the nameplate at the top of our front page. Excised was the word Svoboda, hopefully clearing up any misunderstanding as to the paper's editorial independence from its Ukrainian-language older brother. The move was the result of last year's UNA Executive Committee decision to liberate The Weekly.

In the area of new features, this year's Weekly launched the "Dissident profile" series, which explains itself. We also moved "Preview of Events" to the back page to make it somewhat easier for our readers to decide if they're going to spend their weekend at a concert in Carteret, N.J., or at a bandura workshop at Soyuzivka. What's more Yuri Myskiw of Chicago's Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art offered a number of excellent art reviews to bolster our culture coverage.

In addition, we provided several special issues, such as those on Patriarch Josyf Slipyj's 90th birthday and the pull-out section on the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. There was also the extra edition featuring UNA scholarship winners.

Although this year no one issue seemed to stir the reading public like last year's "folly of mixed marriages," we got substantial feedback on the role of our "elite" academic societies. The mail ran solidly against our "pan doktors." Another hot topic seemed to be the "the" Ukraine debate, with most readers lined up firmly against the "the."

As to headline grabbers, this year's winner has to be Metropolitan Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His picture appeared on page 1 of The Weekly no less than four times. Interestingly enough, last year's winner was Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk. Some inter-Church rivalry, perhaps?

Not to be outdone, Michael Bociurkiw, new president of Canada's SUSK, appeared in four photos in one issue of The Weekly - easily a new record.

In the way of self-promotion, this year The Weekly staff decided to send a free copy of the paper to all Svoboda subscribers, even the few who were already Weekly subscribers, in an effort to remind them of all they lost when Svoboda and Weekly circulations were separated.

Well, the response, we are happy to report, was encouraging. But the move appeared to create some panic among those who suddenly found two copies of The Weekly in their mailboxes. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. We can only guess that, perhaps, sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

In closing, we would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. And, as always, keep reading. It's good to know you're out there.

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