The global pandemic has had a major impact on many small businesses within the shallow pokckets of communities around the country. Small business owners have scrambled to get themselves online and use social media to blast out their message on the “new normal” work hours they’re operating from. A literal battle cry for survival while cutting and downsizing most of their operations. The national media news cycle scrambles to keep up with the shifting trend of the virus, our stimulus money, and which political party is doing right by Americans — which looks to be a zero sum game to me. Does the small business story die in this darkness? The irony of that quip is not lost on me — thanks Washington Post — the small business story does not have to die in darkness. Small publishers like Marlissa Briggett, owner of the South Coast Almanac, is a rock in what should be a larger foundation of local journalism and storytellers. Monolithic newspapers and gossip-ridden-just-for-clicks media outlets are not the only means to amplify your brand’s message. But to launch a printed magazine in the year 2015 where the height of the media market was all digital?? There was a silver lining through lockdown, and that’s a resurgence of deep care and appreciation for a handcrafted magazine. Let’s join Marlissa on her journey of the South Coast Almanac, and how she’s writing her own story here on the South Coast.