As editor and publisher, I want to share with you a few thoughts on our plans at the Dorchester Reporter for covering our communities during this COVID-19 emergency.

Yes, COVID-19 is the big story and it likely will be so for a quite a while. Our team of reporters and contributors continue to work from our newsroom and remotely to document what’s going on, both with COVID-19 and with all the neighborhood activities impacted by the crisis.

We fully intend to continue printing the weekly editions in Dorchester and Mattapan, which are circulated on Wednesdays each week. We have contingency plans in place to publish online-only at dotnews.com if there is some interruption in printing capacity.

But whatever the medium, our reporters and columnists and editors will continue to share information and context with you. We hope that you will help us in that mission by engaging with the Reporter, sharing our work and— if you see fit— subscribing to the paper.

We don’t have a paywall on our website— and we have no plans to change that, especially now. Everyone needs access to the information we will provide over the coming days and weeks. But we will introduce a new tool on our website that will allow readers who want to help underwrite our efforts to make a contribution. This will be badly needed since much of our advertising revenue— the lifeblood of a newspaper and many digital products, too— is definitely going to take a hit, at least in the near-term.

We have a long story thread online now that synthesizes reporting from our team and from State House News Service reporters, who have done an exceptional job in providing a stream of information from critical sources in government. We are also grateful to our partners at WBUR 90.9FM, with whom we share resources and content in a media partnership that is now about two years old.

This week, our staff has spent time talking to people at neighborhood stores and restaurants and cafes to get a better sense of what is happening at those businesses and to find out more about how this crisis is changing behaviors of spending and the like.

We’re staying in close contact with health centers and hospitals in Dorchester and Boston to document what they are hearing and seeing. Our contributor— Bill Walczak— offers some valuable insights on that part of the story in today’s edition.

While our newsroom remains open and active at this time, we have made an important change in protocol that impacts advertising and other walk-in appointments. Effective March 12, all advertisers — including those seeking to place legal notices— must do so through phone (617-436-1222), fax (617-825-5516), or email (addesk@dotnews.com). We will not accept walk-in business during this state of emergency.

This is an incredibly fluid story. It’s magnitude and scope is unprecedented. But we’re committed to staying focused on the local angle and providing the best information we can to our readers.

Right now, we’re very interested in hearing from you about what you want to know. We invite you to help us document this event as it unfolds. Send us your tips, your thoughts, your photos, and— yes— your prayers and well-wishes. The best way to get us for the moment is @DotNews or email us at newseditor@dotnews.com.

Everyone reading this understands the gravity of the situation. It is ridden with anxiety and uncertainty. But we need to stay calm, do the work that needs to be done, and support one another as much as we can. Let’s step up, Dorchester.

- Bill Forry