Interview: Austin Chronicle’s Raoul Hernandez on SXSW and the "Natural Disaster" of Coronavirus

The Austin Chronicle’s slogan that “no news is bad news” has a different ring to it in the wake of the cancellation of South by Southwest 2020. Music Editor Raoul Hernandez gives some perspective on the implications this has for the newspaper, the city, and the world at large. 

Written by Selome Hailu

Photo courtesy of The Dallas Morning News

Raoul Hernandez has served as Music Editor of the Austin Chronicle since 1994, and says that SXSW is one of his staff’s three biggest projects each year. So when Austin Mayor Steve Adler announced on Friday, March 6 that SXSW would be cancelled for the first time in its 34-year history due to coronavirus concerns, the paper was massively affected. Hernandez took some time to offer his thoughts on everything this cancellation could mean.

The Chronicle is South by Southwest’s official print sponsor. How did you and your staff find out about the cancellation? What was it like when the news broke?

The press conference went down, I believe it was 3:55 p.m. on Friday, and we had started getting some indications late Thursday that the city was considering cancelling South by Southwest. That’s when we became aware of the situation, but internally, I don’t think anyone knew that it was happening until right before it got announced.

Were you expecting it? Had you figured the city might go in that direction?

No, I did not.

With the number of cases of COVID-19 that have been confirmed in the U.S. since Adler’s announcement, do you agree with the city’s decision from a health and safety perspective?

It’s a global pandemic, and the estimates have already been that 70% of us (could) get it, so it’s not for me to say whether I agree with the city or not. ... I feel like some people think this is the peak (of the coronavirus crisis), but this is a mushroom cloud. It’s still in the beginning stages. I don’t know if you read what happened in Italy over the weekend — this is the beginning of that. This is the beginning of countries and cities and states reacting case-by-case, and unfortunately, since we have such poor federal leadership, (making public health decisions) really is being left to states and city municipalities. This is the beginning, and this is one, you know, of the first (major events) to go down. Certainly not the last one. 

You mentioned to me in an email that the Chronicle now has to scrap its SXSW preview issue. What exactly does that mean? How does it affect you and your staffers?

I think (we had) something like 10,000 words (already written) of festival preview, and now only a tiny fraction of that will get used as we try and figure out what is still happening in town in the next two weeks. And a lot of things are happening. We just spent an hour in a meeting trying to figure out how fast to package something that says, ‘Here’s what’s still going on. Here’s what you can still attend; here’s how you can help businesses that ordered a lot of food and alcohol that will go bad if it’s not used; here’s the bands still coming to town; here’s the local bands that are still playing and the shows still going on.’ Because it’ll be important for the clubs to get some warm bodies in there, because this is such a big time of year for them. So, we’re really just kind of like everybody else, trying to sift through the burning embers of that announcement on Friday and see how best we can serve multiple communities. Right? Not just the people of Austin, but the restaurateurs and the musicians and everybody.

Photo courtesy of the Austin Chronicle

What kind of work has gone into preparing for SXSW this year? You mentioned 10,000 words lost. How much time was lost?

We begin working on South By technically in December, when they issue their first band list. But the engine really gets going in early to mid-February, and it continues through the third week of March. So it’s basically a five, six, seven week investment of time for us. It’s a lot. Many weeks and lots of overtime. 

You’ve been at the Chronicle for several years now. In your time as an editor, have you ever faced another disaster that’s caused a setback this huge?

Well, you just used a key word for me. I view this as a natural disaster. When you see during hurricane season that a hurricane has hit an island, they usually report not only injuries and deaths, but they’ll give you monetary value of what just happened. And they put that same monetary value on South by Southwest every year. They do an audit, and they estimate 300 to 400 million dollars (is brought into Austin’s economy). …

In some ways, the music part of Austin is almost like an island economy. You know what I mean? (Like) Port Aransas, they depend on your tourist dollar. South Padre depends on your tourist dollar. And if for some reason the whole season is wiped out, you’re talking about a lot of people that get affected by that. ... Obviously, it’s not just the money that’s not coming into town, but it’s what that money represented to a lot of people. Bars have been known to say that as much as 20% of their annual income gets generated during two weeks of South by Southwest. That’s a huge, huge blow. And any little club that was getting rented out because Amazon needed a room, and that was $20,000 they were getting from Amazon — boom, gone. The effects — I don’t even know how you audit the economic impacts this will have on Austin.

What will the Chronicle do without SXSW? What will the paper look like during this time?

There was supposed to be a supplement (in our next issue) about South by Southwest, and now that supplement is likely going to be about what’s left and what is there for you to do. And why is it important that you do some of it — whether it’s (to) go out, or donate some money online, or order out from your favorite restaurant that suddenly has an abundance of food. We’re a news organization. We print every week, so you report on what’s happening, and this week it’s reporting on what’s happening here in the city for the next two weeks. And I imagine in the weeks to follow, there’s gonna be more reporting on the impact of this on Austin. And quite frankly, because this is the beginning, there’s just gonna be, I believe, more of this as we continue into the spring. It’s just going to be more things cancelling, more things affected by (COVID-19). Not just here, but everywhere. So as a news organization, yeah, the switch has been flipped on and, you know, we’re on red alert.

Is there anything that you want from SXSW, or the city of Austin, or Austinites right now? Or anything you want to say to them?

Like I say, the magnitude of this is frankly beyond people’s comprehension right now. And so, you know, all anyone can do in a situation like this — I am talking about South by Southwest, but I’m (also) talking on a much broader health front — all you can do is be plugged into your community and what’s happening in it. This is the time to feel your community.

This interview has been edited minimally for clarity and length.
You can read Hernandez and his staff’s music content here. Consider supporting the Chronicle as they weather the effects of SXSW’s cancellation by donating here.