Editorial: Time to Do Something About It

Editorial, by Stone Korshak

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Tis the season, Thanksgiving just ended and now all hearts and minds are on Christmas and the holiday season ending in New Year’s Eve. The Rio Times has plenty to be thankful for as November ends this year, and is also hoping to do something more for those less fortunate in Rio de Janeiro during Christmas.

What The Rio Times has to be thankful for most in the the last two months is a major burst in online readership growth. After a very disappointing pre- and post-World Cup, we have now doubled our readership since August, and almost fifty percent more than what we had during last year’s Carnival month.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly what caused the online readership drop this past April-May and August-September. Probably it was a combination of factors, from a slowing economy to global World Cup media saturation before (i.e.: from CNN, BBC, the Onion, etc.) as well as local competition cannibalizing the market. Perhaps afterwards the world was tired of hearing about the World Cup, but all that seems behind us.

While we had to put our print edition on hold for a few months, the online focus and re-organization has served us well, and we should be able to be back in print soon. As always we count on advertiser support, but coming into the tourism high-season we’re excited to work with our partners in Rio to boost their business.

We also want to do more for Rio’s children in need this year, and we have thrown our support into a new organization called Street Christmas. The effort is a collaboration between the Street Child World Cup and Favela Street, along with The Rio Times.

Together we will collect Christmas presents this year to be handed out to street children and children in danger of the street in Rio de Janeiro. We ask readers to participate in the project, with the goal of making the Christmas holiday a little brighter for the innocent children cast out on the streets.

The Christmas presents should contain (new or used-but-in-excellent-condition) clothes, blankets and toys, and can be for boys or girls that are on average between 7 and 18 years old. The presents can be dropped off in Flamengo until December 8th or at the British School in Botafogo or volunteer’s homes in Tijuca or Copacabana until December 14th.

In the week after they will be distributed at a street children Christmas breakfast organized by the Amar project.