wbjournal.com | May 11, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
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Worcester Business Journal
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Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com
(Higher education, health care)
Staff Writer, Monica Busch,
mbusch@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing)
Editorial Interns
Micah Wingell, Riley Garand
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon,
Sarah Connell
Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle,
tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Distribution and Database Coordinator
A Guide to STUFF, a publication
of New England Business Media
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Sabrina Mondor,
smondor@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Director of Audience Development,
Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
A
s the coronavirus pandemic
drags on, two things are
becoming abundantly clear:
1) It is still growing; and 2)
People are becoming more
impatient with a closed-down economy, or
at least, the voices of those pushing for an
economic reopening have gotten louder.
About a month ago, when we all settled
into the social distancing regulations and
the economic shutdown, the overwhelm-
ing consensus was this was a necessary
step to fighting a deadly outbreak. e
longer-term worry, though, was people
and businesses might get impatient and
push for the economy to reopen too early,
when the data was still calling for social
distancing. at appears to be what is hap-
pening, as about 20,000 new coronavirus
cases are discovered each day in the U.S.
e federal government and some indi-
vidual states are making decisions based
on politics, deciding to reopen and then
adjusting the expected death toll upward.
Gov. Charlie Baker, to his credit, seems to
be relying more on the scientific data in
guiding his decisions on how Massachu-
setts can move forward safely.
e shutdown still sucks, though.
Nearly 800,000 Massachusetts residents
and more than 33 million Americans have
filed for unemployment since the pan-
demic began, and the economic pain will
only worsen – particularly for the most
vulnerable – the longer this all drags on.
But when I worry too much about the
economic fallout, I think back to a conver-
sation I had for the WBJ Podcast with
Worcester businesswoman Amy Lynn
Chase, whose five businesses are operating
at less than 20% of their typical revenue.
Amy cried when she was asked about
laying off members of her staff, which was
the first time she ever had to do that. Still,
when asked about how badly she wanted
the economy to reopen, Amy thought of
the community. Her businesses have wo-
ven themselves into the fabric of Worces-
ter, and she didn't want to see the health
of her loved ones or members of the
community suffer all for the sake of her
businesses returning to their pre-pandem-
ic levels. She would find a way to operate
and survive, while abiding by whatever
measures are forced upon her businesses,
in order to keep the coronavirus impact to
I N T H I S I S S U E
a minimum.
When the pandemic started, we all said
we were in this together. Let's not lose
heart now. It's going to be tough, but it
needs to be.
– Brad Kane, editor
We should all keep taking this seriously
NEWS & ANALYSIS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
14 Focus on The Digital Future
18 The List: Top IT service providers
21 Column: Outside the box
22 Know How
23 Movers & Shakers
24 Photo Finish
25 Opinion
26 Shop Talk: Linda Cammuso, EPLO
10 Short- and long-term
consequences
The real estate industry is adjusting to the
fallout from the coronavirus, as fingers
are crossed about the long-term impact.
22 COVD-19's impact on business
owners of color
Know How advice columnist Jasmine J. Ortiz
discusses ways professionals can help
business owners of color navigate their
particular challenges.
W
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