Editor-in-Chief Julia Lok sits in Mr. DeForest’s room, wondering what went wrong. How did a newspaper successful enough to take over The Sting, suddenly close?
It began last year with a Reuter’s scandal: one of the writers used an image with their article that could have done in the Buzz immediately, and the lawyers responded demanding reparations. Could we pay? No, but FM’s lawyers supposedly got the newspaper out of a hot place. It would be fair to say that the hot place the Buzz was in has continued to remain warm. However, an email from the same Reuter’s heckler appeared two days ago, demanding a sum of $3,000 that the Buzz simply does not have. That isn’t the worst of it though.
Just one month ago, attendance at meetings was averaging just five or so people, articles were being pushed out at a snail’s pace of 1.2 articles per week, and photographs were virtually non-existent, except for the help of one Marcus Albuquerque. Even the former “article pumper,” Ethan Wong, was burdened by too many APs and activities. Even Hudson Brenner, the writer of this article, began resorting to completing his articles in under 30 minutes the night before the deadline, so that they were unpolished and nonsensical (as this sentence probably might seem in the third person). The morale was low, and the morals were weak.
Then a very real disaster struck last week: Mr. DeForest stepped down. That is to say, he remained as the official advisor, but refused to help publish any of our articles or attend meetings. This has remained hush-hush until now though, and this reporter is only getting the scoop after the beloved advisor accidentally sent a resignation letter to my email only, instead of the entire Buzz email list. This technical glitch will become known to Mr. DeForest following the publication of this article, but as for now, the readers of this article will be the first to know. In his resignation letter, Mr. DeForest gave up and dissolved the Buzz. He wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for the $3,000 from Reuters, but with that, the burden is just too much.
Staff, make sure to download all your articles before the website is shut down after April 1st. 😉
