2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Meanwhile, here at The Ukrainian Weekly (01/16/05)

2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Meanwhile, here at The Ukrainian Weekly

Zowie! Another year-in-review issue completed. And right on schedule: today (January 13) is New Year's Eve according to the Julian calendar.

This year we brought you the usual 52 issues of The Ukrainian Weekly, including one with the date of February 29 - that's right, a leap year issue! Among those issues for 2004 - and on those 1,500 pages, among those 1,437,913 words - were our now traditional special issues devoted to the "Year in Review" (for 2003), "A Ukrainian Summer" and Ukrainian Independence Day, as well as the annual section on Ukrainian debutante balls. In addition, we brought you numerous special sections, including one dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the our publisher, the Ukrainian National Association (February 22); the 40th anniversary of the unveiling Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington (June 27); and a section prepared with the Ukrainian American Veterans (August 15). The Shevchenko issue was particularly notable as it reprinted historic materials related to the 1964 unveiling of the monument, as well as some new materials that highlighted the event's significance.

During the year The Weekly published articles on a huge range of topics, from updates on Senate Resolution 202 on the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine to an article on a blight threatening Kyiv's famed horse chestnut trees; from news of the closings of schools in Newark, N.J., and Northampton, Pa.; to the success of a Ukrainian Canadian radio program in Ottawa.

Readers also saw stories on topics ranging from Russian President Vladimir Putin's neo-Soviet policies as they pertain to Ukraine and the "near abroad" to Ruslana's appearance on the international music scene; from tributes to the late Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky to the first ever Soyuzivka weekend for adoptive parents of children from Ukraine; from the arrival of the Stanley Cup in Kyiv courtesy of Ruslan Fedotenko of the Tampa Bay Lightning to the donation of works by the renowned Oleksa Hryshchenko (Alexis Gritchenko) to museums in Ukraine.

The Weekly also published materials that included Andrew Nynka's interviews with Ken Daneyko, three-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils, and soccer superstar Andriy Shevchenko; and stories about Ukraine's participation in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

In 2004 we at The Ukrainian Weekly had not one, but two, elections on our minds.

Thus we devoted much space on our pages to discussions of the relative merits of the presidential candidates in the United States, incumbent George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry. Some of the discussions were quite heated, we might add. On the eve of the presidential election we published responses by the Bush and Kerry campaigns to questions posed by The Ukrainian Weekly's editors on issues of concern to the Ukrainian American community (the responses appeared in our issues dated October 24 and 31). The campaign of Ralph Nader did not respond.

The U.S. election was simple compared to what happened in Ukraine as there the presidential election went from the first round to the second, and then to a rerun of the run-off (which everyone started calling the third round). We covered all of that, plus our Kyiv correspondent Roman Woronowycz provided exclusive pieces on the top two presidential candidates, offering readers an interview with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and a feature about a day on the campaign trail with opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. In addition, in July we began a special section of brief news items related to the presidential campaign in Ukraine which we dubbed "Election Watch."

There were at least two features during the year that could be categorized as stories that made a difference. In March, Yaro Bihun reported the story of "Dmytre Z," a post-World War II Ukrainian immigrant who was among 12 deceased people identified in an exhibit called "Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic" that profiled the lives of former patients of the Willard Psychiatric Center. Mr. Bihun decided to do a bit of journalistic sleuthing to determine who "Dmytre Z" was. He succeeded and wrote a story about his research. On the fourth anniversary of Dmytro Zacharuk's death, a local photographer, Frank Speziale, whom Mr. Bihun had contacted for help on the story, placed flowers on his grave.

Later in the year, The Weekly was happy to report the success story of Ihor Lobok, the 15-year-old street violinist whose story last year captured the hearts of dozens of Ukrainian Americans. On September 1 the wunderkind musician began studies at the world-renowned Gliere Music Academy in Kyiv. In 2003 Roman Woronowycz of The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau filed a story about how Ihor had played a school-issued violin on Kyiv's streets in his off-hours for money to support himself, his sick mother and his older sister. Ukrainian Americans spontaneously reacted to the moving story and contributed nearly $1,200 to purchase a violin for Ihor.

On June 27, we reported back to our readers on the results of our quinquennial questionnaire (we publish a reader survey once every five years on the occasions of The Weekly's anniversaries; it was our 70th anniversary in 2003). We noted that, for the most part, our readers are happy with The Weekly's content. True, some like sports and some do not; some love columns by Myron Kuropas, while others hate them. At the end of the day, however, one has to consider that no newspaper can please all its readers all of the time - no matter how hard it tries. We express our sincere appreciation to those of you who took time out of their busy schedules to help us evaluate our performance.

In February we unveiled the full texts of 1,676 articles published during 2003 on our official website, www.ukrweekly.com. That brought the number of full text articles on the site - called The Ukrainian Weekly Archive - to 14,506. The site includes the full texts of articles published from 1996 through 2003, plus articles from various other special issues from 1933 to the present. Also online are highlights of each week's issue during the current year. (Look for our 2004 full text to go online in late February.)

Staff news

Layout artist Larissa Oprysko, joined our staff on May 10. Ms. Oprysko, who has a B.A. in communications and design from the University of Connecticut, is a wonderful addition to our team. The position had been vacant since June 2003, when our colleague Markian Rybak broke his leg and did not return; we advertised the opening on our production staff in March of this year.

In early December Roman Woronowycz, an editor at The Ukrainian Weekly since June 1992, left us for a new position as head of public information for the U.S. Agency for International Development regional office for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Mr. Woronowycz had served as The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau chief since August 1997. Prior to that he was a staff writer/editor at The Ukrainian Weekly's home office in Parsippany, N.J., and was the paper's Kyiv correspondent from December 1993 through June 1994 and August 1996 through July 1997. He covered the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Weekly in 1996.

Editor Andrew Nynka, who came aboard in March 2001, volunteered to serve at the Kyiv Press Bureau in the interim (through mid-January), while we search for a full-time replacement.

The rest of the staff remains the same: Editor-in-Chief Roma Hadzewycz, who joined the staff full-time in 1977 and has been editor-in-chief since 1980; and Editor Ika Koznarska Casanova, who was on our staff full time in 1980-1981, and since 1990 has worked on a part-time basis, is also our arts editor. Rounding out The Weekly's production staff is Awilda Rolon, who does typesetting and layout, and has been with us since December 1980. And then there's our webmaster and special projects guy, Serge Polishchuk, who in another life was our full-time layout artist and computer troubleshooter. Somehow we kept things going and the paper continued to come out.

Stats

As is our tradition in this section of the "Year in Review," we hereby report that during 2004 the word "Ukraine" appeared 12,891 times, while "Ukrainian" appeared 13,635 times and "Ukrainians" 1,462. As it was a very special year, we also note that "Yushchenko" appeared 2,678 times, while "Yanukovych" was in the paper 2,024 times. The word "orange" was used 242 times.

Ah, yes, we should mention that four issues during 2004 had orange spot color in the form of slogans on our front page that said either "For Fairness and Justice in Ukraine" or "For Democracy in Ukraine." (The fifth time orange was used it was for a simple "Slava Ukraini!" that appeared in the first issue of 2005.)

Our thank-yous

During 2004, The Weekly received donations to its press fund totaling $30,715. We are extremely grateful for this significant show of support from our readers.

Our administration - Walter Honcharyk, administrator; Maria Oscislawski, advertising manager; and Maria Pendzola, subscriptions/circulation manager - continues to play a key role in the day-to-day, week-to-week functioning of The Ukrainian Weekly. We commend their dedication and cooperation.

Thanks also go to our summer intern for 2004, Roxolana Woloszyn, who also worked with us in 2003. Also helping out for a short period during the summer of 2004 was another veteran intern, Peter Steciuk.

Credits

Finally, credit is due to all those responsible for helping prepare this issue: our staff at our editorial offices in Parsippany, N.J., Ms. Hadzewycz and Ms. Casanova; Mr. Nynka, on interim assignment in Kyiv; our colleagues Yaro Bihun in Washington and Chris Guly in the Ottawa area; and contributors Deanna Yurchuk ,Yarema Belej, Roxolana Woloszyn and Markian Hadzewycz.

Not to be forgotten, of course, is our production crew, Ms. Rolon and Ms. Oprysko, assisted by Mr. Polishchuk, who always lends a hand on special projects like these.

As you, Dear Readers, enjoy this mega-issue, we'll take a little breather over the weekend. Then, it's back to work on Monday, when we begin work on a "normal" issue. But, before we go, let us convey this message: Happy New Year to you all and a Happy New Era for Ukraine!

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