This year has been simply terrible. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. In our industry, many daily papers have continued shrinking or simply going out of business, those actions exacerbated by the economic depression brought about by the pandemic.

Reminder Publishing has been very, very lucky to have avoided the industry trends. I’m not bragging here – far from it. Every time I see a story about a newspaper closing or reducing its frequency or staff, I hurt. I know people are losing jobs and communities are losing coverage.

Local newspapers tend to cover events which are at the ground level of local politics and the way we live.

The decrease in newspapers nationally is leading to “news deserts,” areas in which communities do not have as much coverage as they need or deserve. Commercial radio, thanks to changes in government regulations, no longer has to have the local news coverage they once did.

Local TV does not frequently cover the school committees or city councils or neighborhood issues that were once the meat and potatoes of many newspapers.

The format we have seems to be bucking the current trend. Our general manager, Fran Smith, developed a business model that allows us to focus on a community or group of communities, producing home-delivered weekly newspapers with a high percentage of local news. These newspapers provide a cost-effective way for local businesses to reach their customers.

Earlier this year we expanded into Easthampton, Southampton and Westhampton. And this week our first edition for Holyoke, Granby and South Hadley is being distributed.

The Holyoke news once part of The Chicopee Herald will now be increased and have its own home-delivered edition. News from South Hadley and Granby also will be featured.

Being back in this area means a lot to me personally.

Holyoke at one time had its own daily newspaper, The Transcript-Telegram, otherwise known as the “T-T.” I worked there for about a year. Fran worked there as well.  After that job, I was hired to be a talk show host for WREB, a pioneering talk radio station. I was there from 1982 to 1987 and those were fun times. I greatly enjoyed working in Holyoke and being on-air.

I even bartended – radio never paid a whole lot – at Kelley’s Lobster House and The Bud, now both gone but not forgotten. Boy, did I enjoy The Bud and all its history. I was so saddened the building could not be saved.

I remember the sign “This is not a bank; this is The Bud.” I bet some of you remember the story behind that sign, as well.

The history of the city has always been interesting to me and I have  included a trip around Holyoke to visiting family members and friends.

I left WREB to accept a job at Wistariahurst Museum as program director and when the city eliminated funding for that job I was hired as the founding manager of Tower Theaters in South Hadley.

By the way – my family lived in Granby for 20 years and I graduated from Granby High School.

My roots run pretty deeply in these communities.

The team who will be running the Holyoke edition will be Assistant Managing Editor Payton North (payton@thereminder.com) and Staff Writer Danielle Eaton (daniellee@thereminder.com). Danielle lived in Holyoke for a while and really enjoys the city. These are two excellent journalists who are looking for forward to covering the Paper City.

Naturally they would like to hear from you. If your organization, church or school is doing something it needs publicized, please add them to your email list. If you have an interesting story feel free to send them a pitch.             

Don’t forget us – elected officials – when you are spreading the word about a particular issue.

I’m very happy for us to launch this new edition in some wonderful towns and I hope we will continue our expansion. I also hope to be able to do a story for that edition from time to time.