A man named Charles Caleb Colton once said, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
So we’re flattered and accept it as a compliment that a longtime paid newspaper in our coverage area, which has spent the better part of 15 years making fun of Nutfield Publishing’s newspapers because they are free and telling potential advertisers that no one would read a free newspaper, has switched to free distribution.
We know our strengths – detailed local news and sports delivered in a timely manner by reporters who know their communities. Advertising by businesses that serve the New Hampshire towns our three publications serve. And reporters devoted to giving our readers everything local.
That’s why our three papers – the Londonderry Times, the Nutfield News of Derry and the Tri-Town Times, covering Chester, Sandown and Hampstead – are each unique to their communities. An occasional story involves all of our towns and is published in all of our papers, but in any given week, you are likely to find only stories about Derry in the Nutfield News; only stories about Londonderry in the Londonderry Times. Indeed, most weeks we have more stories and photos from our Southern New Hampshire-based reporters than space to run them.
Most people agree on what is big news – the possibility of losing 46 town employees and shutting a fire station in Derry, for example. Our Derry readers will get plenty of stories about that potential budget move in this and the coming weeks.
But where we also shine, if we can pat ourselves on the back, is on what some newspapers sneeringly call meeting “minutiae.” A proposed subdivision on a short cul-de-sac may not interest everyone or even most people in town, but it sure as heck is of interest to the residents of that cul-de-sac. And that’s why Planning Board or Zoning Board action gets detailed coverage in our newspapers along with headline news.
And we take pride that all of our staff live in Southern New Hampshire; Nutfield Publishing’s owners, Chris and Deb Paul, live in Londonderry. Even our printer is in New Hampshire. There’s no out-of-state or indeed, out-of-region corporate personnel making decisions about what you are receiving.
We’re comfortable in saying that if you want to know what’s happening in Derry, Londonderry, Sandown, Hampstead and Chester – what is affecting taxpayers’ pocketbooks, who is making decisions at town hall, when baseball signups take place, and who is organizing an upcoming festival – read our local paper, delivered right to your mailbox, as it always has been. We’re confident that you’ll be glad you did.