It isn’t hard to find news of the impending death of print newspapers. The last year has seen the closure of major dailies across the country, and closer to home, at least one daily in the state and several weeklies have shut their doors, even as others have cut their frequency of publication.
So it’s a piece of good news to recognize the 18 year anniversary this week of the Londonderry Times, the original newspaper of Nutfield Publishing, LLC’s three publications.
In these days of economic hardship and business closure, the Londonderry Times is going strong, continuing in its founding tradition of printing news its hometown readers can use, with the goal of building a stronger sense of community.
What started in the basement of a Londonderry home has expanded into a company that has never lost touch with its roots, or with its desire to help the community find out what’s going on. With knowledge, as the saying goes, comes power, and great responsibility to educate the people on what is happing in the town encourage people to get involved/to take action and in Londonderry, that knowledge has oftentimes translated into powerful action, as residents reacted to stories of their neighbors’ problems by offering help, and responded to gaps in services by stepping in to provide them.
These days, many communities are realizing just how much of a hole opens up when they lose their newspaper. When is deliberative session? When is softball registration? When does the garden club meet? What’s the town council’s stance on an issue?
Sure, you can find most of those answers by making a series of phone calls if you know to ask about or searching online if you know what you are looking for. That excludes the residents without Internet service, of course, and most of us don’t have the patience to do all that research or the time. So for many, local news falls by the wayside, and a sense of community and traditions falls away as well. As time passes, fewer and fewer people know about town events, fewer and fewer participate, and fewer and fewer bother to care or take action, very sad.
There are plenty of things we don’t miss until they’re gone, and a community newspaper is a big one of them.
Founder and publisher Deb Paul said she wants her newspapers to have heart. We hope you’ll be part of that community connection we’ve forged between the Londonderry Times and its readers, as we move forward into our 18 years for being a part of your life and community.
Because there’s no other place we’d rather be than right here in town, bringing you the news of the place where your heart is, the place you call home!