We’re posting more and more articles on a daily basis, keeping you updated with email newsletters, and despite harsh market realities, we are about to launch Boston Tops, a new regionwide appreciation initiative.

Dear Reader,

I am not sure if it’s still a thing to apologize for having no idea where the days, weeks, and months go, but if it is, I’m sorry. Like so many others, I am suspended in a cold unknowing abyss, sometimes showering in the middle of the night and dressing up for no reason at all on Sundays only to get right back in sweatpants and slippers for Monday meetings.

But while parts of me endure occasional paralysis over the current state of things, even to the point of unbelievable anxiety where I shudder having to open my inbox and tend to the several hundred emails asking for something—writers pitching stories, publicists and marketers begging for press, vendors asking for payments, the list goes on—without seeming to understand that we’re running one of the last local news outlets around here shorthanded during a pandemic, somehow I still soldier on. As does everyone on the Dig team, along with everyone who works with us on the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism side of things.

So, why am I telling you this? It’s simple, I try to be as open as possible with our readers. I don’t have any reason not to be, and since those of you who pick up and support us are the reason we’re still grinding, you ought to know what’s up. Plus, there is nothing embarrassing about the fact that we have frighteningly few advertisers; if anything, I’m proud that we’ve been able to stick it out through the storm, and that we have more readers now than ever before in Dig history as a result of our thorough reporting on everything from entertainment to the housing crisis. Among other major splashes, this year alone we already exposed former BPD Commissioner William Gross for violating the city’s residency requirement, have led coverage statewide on the prison front (including in this issue), and broke the story about Boston Latin Academy graduates being excluded from their alumni association.

That’s just for starters. We’re posting more and more articles on a daily basis, keeping you updated with email newsletters, and despite harsh market realities, we are about to launch Boston Tops, a new regionwide appreciation initiative in which we will poll Dig readers about their favorite everything, from food and drink spots to dispensaries and local lawyers (voting opens Feb 24). You can keep us going strong by casting a ballot and, if you own a business, advertising in that and other upcoming issues. And of course, we also need you to become a member. Sign up now and you will receive the February issue of our subscriber mag, which is separate from our street edition and the first member edition we’re dropping this year after a hiatus in January. Last week was one of our biggest weeks to date for signups. You can help us have an even more successful month by visiting trypico.com/digboston.

Chris Faraone, Editor-in-Chief