Last week’s issue was the final one for the Harvard Hillside. The paper, founded in 1869, ended its long run with volume 147, number 38.
The Hillside and five other town weeklies are being folded into a new publication, the Nashoba Valley Voice. The other papers affected are the Groton Landmark, the Ayer Public Spirit, the Pepperell Free Press, the Shirley Oracle, and the Townsend Times.
All six were part of Nashoba Publishing, which in turn was a subsidiary of the Denver-based MediaNews Group, one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in the country. MediaNews was noted for its business model of cutting costs and combining local papers into regional ones. In a 2013 merger, MediaNews Group became Digital First Media, a company that emphasizes web, mobile, and tablet news formats.
The editor for the new Nashoba Valley Voice will be Jen Paluzzi, who has been the digital editor for The Sun in Lowell. A front-page story in the final issue of the Hillside promised more news on the Voice’s website and an expanded presence on social media. Kate Walsh King, who served as managing editor for all six weeklies for nearly 15 years, wrote in a farewell editorial in the Sept. 18 Hillside that she will be moving to the copy desk of The Sun.
