We are so beyond thrilled to bring back 72 Hours as its own publication.
Cheers to our inaugural return issue, and to everyone who has been a part of it finally happening!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know it’s been a tough couple of years through the pandemic. Newspapers were already suffering and took a hit just like every other business (except maybe Amazon and DoorDash). As we can see now so clearly in the rearview, the pandemic affected nearly every aspect of our lives. It affected different groups of people, businesses and organizations disproportionately. It certainly affected our creative class, whose value and gifts have always been woven into the fabric of our local economy.
For two years, 72 Hours had been folded into the daily News-Post on Thursdays. Going forward, we will continue to publish 72 Hours in this format each Thursday, and it will be available as an insert inside the daily paper, as well as at several locations throughout Frederick County. Pick up a copy and plan your weekend!
A little backstory for the curious: 72 Hours was originally called “The Next 72 Hours” and served as a weekend guide. We dropped “The Next” more than 10 years ago, but the mission remains the same: to spark inspiration and give you lots of ideas for things to check out in our area every week.
We’re looking forward to sharing with you even more arts and entertainment stories, covering dining and craft beer, music, film, theater, dance, visual art, literature, fashion, history, comics, video games, getaway trips and outdoor recreation. We will always be sure to mention a few family-friendly options, too. We hope to give you plenty of things to add to your “must-see” lists, without having to travel too far (and these days, so many events are livestreamed, so there’s often that option, too — if you’re not totally burned out on screens by now).
We will be including profiles, too, which I believe help us to get to know and understand the people living and working and sometimes visiting here.
And would it even be 72 Hours without all the quirky, offbeat stories we find in our community and share with you? Like the three Frederick High School grads we wrote about who spent 15 years filming a new Star Wars storyline, or our “investigative piece” on what local chefs eat when they get the munchies, or our story about Sam Barsky, the guy who knits sweaters of all the places he’s visited (BTW, we wrote about him in 2017, and he’s still going: see sambarsky.com).
There is so much to celebrate here.
And just quickly, about me: After studying creative writing in college, I quickly found a place as an editorial assistant at The Frederick News-Post, then located in downtown Frederick at 200 E. Patrick St. I will always remember my first visit there, when I arrived for the job interview. I felt at home among the stacks of newspapers and notebooks, some of which seemed to nearly reach the ceiling. I was in the right place.
I became the 72 Hours writer a year later, in 2007, then took over as 72 Hours editor in 2011. For about three years, I was gone — with a brief stint as arts editor at Baltimore magazine and then living on the road. I returned as features editor in the thick of the pandemic, March 2021, with my biggest dream being to bring back 72 Hours as its own publication. I certainly could not have done it without the tremendous support of the entire News-Post team. Through some serious effort across the board — our advertising department, press and carriers, writers and designers, publisher and owner — that dream is being realized now.
To me, 72 Hours was never about me or even The Frederick News-Post but about the artists and business owners and craft brewers and artisans who live and work here and make Frederick County the colorful, creative community that it is. 72 Hours is meant to be a reflection of that.
And that brings me to YOU. I would love to hear from you. And, truth be told, I am still bouncing around ideas in my head for what this page 3 will become in the future — our top picks for things to do that week, a photo of the week, comics created by a local artist, a column? (It’s not unusual for me to decide on something very last-minute.) So, if there is anything in particular that you’d like to see here, give me a shout. My email is llarocca@newspost.com, and I check it often.
