1993: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Meanwhile, here at The Weekly... (12/26/93)

1993: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Meanwhile, here at The Weekly...

At The Weekly in 1993 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our founding with a special issue prepared for the occasion that included a decade-by-decade overview of the newspaper's contents and articles focusing on the paper's editors and columnists through the years.

The Weekly's six decades of service were highlighted in a special feature carried by the TV show "Kontakt," which airs in the New York and Toronto metro areas, as well as in interviews broadcast by the Voice of America and Radio Liberty into Ukraine. A film crew from Ukraine also focused on our activity, but we don't know what ever happened to that piece... The Weekly received a certificate of recognition from the Ukrainian National Women's League of America. Numerous anniversary greetings came into our offices - from officials in Ukraine, members of the U.S. Congress, community leaders, friends and others. Thank you for remembering us!

This also was the year we computerized production of our newspaper. The transition to our Macintosh system was smoother than we expected, but not without its glitches, such as a story on the Russian referendum that never ended, or typographical errors not picked up by our spellchecker. (The letter "l" seemed to be a particular problem: one time there was one too many; another time, well you know, it should'a been there... But, we were happy at least that the total number of "l's" was correct and thus the universe remained in synch.) For the record, the first issue of The Weekly to be completed in its entirety on our Mac system was No. 16, April 18, 1993.

Afterwards there were changes in our design - some subtle, some not. The long-awaited change in The Ukrainian Weekly's flag occurred this year; the new design was unveiled in our 60th anniversary issue dated October 10. Many thanks in the design department go to our newest co-worker, layout artist Serge Polishchuk. The new Weekly flag was introduced also on our Weekly T-shirts (in reverse, i.e. white on black). Mr. Polishchuk, "Sid" to us, had been assigned to The Weekly late in 1992 to learn paste-up. This year our resident computer genius/philosopher taught us quite a few things.

Our trusty typesetter, Awilda Arzola (who is second in seniority at The Weekly) was out for much of the year, causing a near panic among the editorial staff. She broke her hip in March and did not return to work until September. But, when she did return, she didn't skip a beat. That's our Willy! In the meantime we were very ably assisted by Dana Rigalski, who usually typesets Svoboda, Veselka and the various magazines printed on our premises, and our dependable temp, Randa Almasri. We'll be sad to see Randa leave in early 1994.

It was a year of weddings for The Weekly crew as staff writer/editor Andrij Wynnyckyj and assistant editor Khristina Lew tied the knot - not with each other, though. Andrij's better half is Zirka Kudla of Toronto (formerly of Amherstburg, Ontario); Khristina's lucky groom is Adrian Gawdiak of Silver Spring, Md.

Meanwhile, at our Kyyiv bureau, associate editor Marta Kolomayets found the right man and announced her engagement to Kyyivan Danylo Yanevsky. Stay tuned for the wedding in May. Roman Woronowycz, a staff writer/editor, joined Marta in Kyyiv on December 1, most fittingly on his name day. Marta is scheduled to return to New York on December 28, having served as our Kyyiv bureau chief since February. Mr. Woronowycz is assigned to the Kyyiv press bureau for six months. We wish him good luck. We could not neglect to mention our Kyyiv secretary, Viktoria Hubsky, without whom, needless to say, life in the Ukrainian capital would be incredibly more difficult.

On the home front, The Weekly's editor-in-chief, Roma Hadzewycz, was among Ukrainian community leaders who received certificates of merit from New York City Council President Andrew Stein. Ika Koznarska Casanova, our part-time editorial staffer, was invaluable as always, filling in where needed to do interviews and news stories in addition to the feature she initiated way back when, Preview of Events. Yarema Bachynsky, a law student, was our summer intern. We were so pleased with his work we asked him to come help us with the yearender.

Helen Smindak, a Weekly stalwart, returned to the newspaper's pages with her coverage of cultural events. Another returnee was our AWOL hockey writer, Ihor Stelmach. Scores of others, correspondents, columnists, analysts, community activists, etc., contributed to The Weekly in 1993. In fact, there was so much information that 16-page issues this year became a rarity.

Not to be forgotten (certainly not by those readers who continue to protest rather loudly) is the fact that 1993 was the year we took the big step and decided to spell "Kiev" Kyyiv (in accordance with National Geographic, the U.S. Board on Geographical Names and, perhaps most importantly, the Ukrainian Mapping Agency). We hoped for a quick resolution to the spelling problem, as there were several versions of the Ukrainian capital city's name, from Kiyev, to Kyiv, to Kyïv (in exasperation, our editor-in-chief suggested Quayiv), but that was not to be as the long-awaited Kyyiv conference on toponyms came and went without a decision. So Kyyiv it shall be, for the time being. (Incidentally, Rand McNally has now decided to adopt that spelling.)

The Weekly continues to be used as a primary source of news from Ukraine. It is cited by researchers, and in numerous newly published books and other publications. In addition, information from The Weekly is used in East European regional newsbriefs columns appearing in the Prague Post and Budapest Sun, both English-language publications.

In early 1993 we published the results of our questionnaire, via which our readers told us exactly what they like, and what they don't. Some of the suggestions have been implemented. Others, well, perhaps if there's divine intervention... We are grateful for all your responses.

To conclude, The Ukrainian Weekly in 1993 continued to be what it was meant to be... Ukrainian. For the record, a typical 20-page issue contained the word "Ukrainian" 333 times, "Ukraine" 167 times, "Ukraine's" 50 times and "Ukrainians" 22 times. Just in case you wanted to know.

* * *

And that, dear readers, brings another year to a close.

As always, we wish you nothing but the best and the fulfillment of all your wishes in 1994.

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