Publishing news that is hyper-local­ — that is still our philosophy

March 27, 2019 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Next week, our Chicopee-Springfield-Holyoke edition will be re-branded as the Chicopee Herald, the newspaper that was bought by former publishers Chris and Dan Buendo in 1998.

I was hired in November of 1999 to be the primary writer and editor of the Herald. The Herald was no stranger to me as I first became acquainted with it when Ron Chemelis owned the paper. I worked with Ron at WREB in Holyoke for five years in the 1980s.

As Ron will detail in an article next week, The Chicopee Herald has a long and interesting history serving one of the largest communities in Western Massachusetts. The return of The Chicopee Herald brand comes at an interesting time in Chicopee’s history. The city’s retail corridor has seen a huge revival and Chicopee is known as being a job and industry hub not only with Westover ARB, but the extensive business parks in the city. There are many developments for the city, such as municipal broadband, that show the city is moving forward.

Historically, The Chicopee Herald summed up the philosophy of a community weekly: publishing news that is hyper-local.

That’s still our philosophy here at Reminder Publishing, LLC. We strive to give our readers news that can’t be seen elsewhere and stories that are more in-depth than those carried by other outlets.

In this era when outlets are competing to get a story out first, my staff and I want to get the story out correctly and as in-depth as possible. Each week we push our deadlines and ourselves to do just that.

The Chicopee Herald will cover Chicopee in greater depth as well as present stories for Springfield and Holyoke readers. The ‘paper will be home delivered in Chicopee and distributed at drop points for Springfield and Holyoke.

I’m happy and proud to say that on Thursdays when The Chicopee Herald is distributed, it will join the Agawam-West Springfield Reminder and our heritage edition in East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Hampden and Wilbraham, in home delivery. That means on Thursdays there will be no other newspaper in the Hampden County with a higher circulation rate – 75,287 copies.

In the newspaper industry the standard is that a single copy of a ‘paper is read by 1.5 people, meaning a potential readership of 112,930 people.

Our local advertisers will have a vehicle to reach a lot of people at an affordable rate.

I’m not bragging here. That’s not my nature. I am proud of what this company is doing and it is a group effort of everyone here – sales, production, circulation and news.

For our readers in Chicopee, Springfield and Holyoke I hope you will find the Chicopee Herald to be a welcomed part of your week.

Rest in peace, George

Back when I worked at the Transcript-Telegram in Holyoke I wrote about a the morning talk show host at WREB radio in Holyoke who was raising money for a project by riding one of the roller coasters at Mountain Park for hours.

That man was the late George Murphy, who passed away last week.

George and I shared a love of old movies and subsequently I was a guest on his show several times. When George left WREB and his replacement fizzled after several weeks, there was an open slot and I was hired for the evening drive program while Ron Chemelis was tagged for the morning programs. Jonathan Evans, the mid-day host, was one of George’s closest friends.

Over the years, I saw George every now and then. He was a genuinely funny and warm guy and I was so happy for him when he had a nine-year run with WGBY and his show “Making it Here.” George also had a long-time radio gig over at WMAS.

He was an old school broadcaster who enjoyed what he was doing.  If you listened to George, you should read the blog he once did about his career. It’s at http://holyokemassradiowreb.blogspot.com. I can hear George’s voice as I read these posts.

Rest in peace, George.

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