And then all of that changed when in 2010, Heidi Pascual, my co-everything since 1999 decided to leave the U.S. and return to her native Philippines due to the crash of print advertising as advertising continued to migrate to the Internet. Not only was it a challenge for The Capital City Hues, but also for Heidi’s Asian Wisconzine, a monthly publication. For Heidi, it was the right decision.

I had to make a choice. I had to absorb a lot of Heidi’s responsibilities in the day-to-day production of The Hues or call it a day. I decided to keep on going although it meant that I would have little personal or free time beyond the newspaper and taking care of my non-profit accounting clients.

Heidi continued to work on The Hues from The Philippines, formatting our Happenings section, formatting what few classified ads that we had and being the webmaster for our website. Ty Glenn, one of our partners, continued to make the bulk of our deliveries and I delivered what was left over.

It was not easy. I was making the equivalent of $10 per hour and needed to continue to work as an accountant for my non-profit customers. There was little time or room for error to spare.

While as partners, we had invested $40,000 in The Hues, by 2014, due to initial start-up costs and the aforesaid migration of advertising to the Internet, The Hues’ cash value was now down to about $13,000. A decision had to be made. The money that I had invested was a great deal of my net worth. And so my thinking was, “Do we call it a day and save what capital we have left to support ourselves or invest in another venture or do we stay with it?” I love my partners for never putting pressure on me during these difficult financial times. One partner said, ‘Well I invested in The Hues to lose money for a tax break.” I don’t think she was serious, but I did feel supported. The Hues kept plugging away and we experienced 10 straight years of being in the black. Life is hard, but God is good!

In the work, The Hues was buoyed by the support of the partners to whom I will always be grateful, our advertisers and our readership. We didn’t receive many accolades during this time, but it was the comments that people would email to me or tell me at community events or even write when they were renewing their subscriptions. We were community-based and it was the community that lifted us up. Despite the challenges, the need was always there.

After Heidi left, there were no vacations except a 2019 four-day trip to New York City with my son Andrew and brother Jim. It was a great four days and little did I know it would be my last to present.

And then COVID-19 hit in March 2020. I remember my last interview in March in a West High student’s apartment with her mom. The next day, everything locked down. I remember as I was leaving their apartment building, I saw some young African American boys playing pick-up basketball in a nearby park. And I wondered what would happen to them.

The vast majority of print publications stopped printing when the March 2020 COVID lock down began. As I pondered on whether The Hues should follow suit, three things came to mind. First, about 80 subscribers had paid for their biweekly papers. I couldn’t rip them off. Second, if we stopped printing, I instinctively knew that we would never print again. And third, I knew that we needed to present some sense of normalcy while our readership was locked down.

And so we continued to print, printing enough to place at grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential service sites and expanded as society opened up.

And we adapted. One of our first center spread was photos taken in the UW-Madison Arboretum and along Madison’s lakes. There were no people in the photos, only nature. I would take photos of people and sometimes their art work outside from six feet away and then interview them over the phone. Somehow, we were able to fill the paper with stories involving people whom others knew, creating a sense of normalcy in a time of crisis. I could have caught COVID-19 a couple of times, but it was all worth it.

And all of this would not have been possible if advertisers like Summit Credit Union, Madison College, UW-Madison, The Ritcherson Companies, Housing Ministries of Wisconsin and Omega School hadn’t continued to support us so that we were able to enjoy a modest profit while continuing our work.

In 2021, after 14 years, we decided to reduce our issues to 25 per year. In essence, we lost money on the last issue during the holidays and I needed a break that two weeks would bring. Of course, I still had to do budgeting, year-end close-out, contract material preparation and other things for my non-profit customers. Fortunately, right before the pandemic, I started to transition my non-profit business to my son Andrew. As I aged, we adjusted my work burden accordingly.

And here we are, entering our 20^th year of publication and I feel that we are still meaningful and relevant. I had a couple who had moved to Madison from Chicago’s south side email a note the other day that said along with WORT, we are the “Madison Miracle.”

At 72-years-old, I don’t know how many years I have left in the tank, but I can’t think of doing anything else. Publishing The Hues is exceedingly rewarding, And knowing and working with 11 fine partners is icing on the cake.