Now that we’re into 2025, we want to update you, our readers, on the state of the Press.
In the past year, we were proud to continue weekly coverage and to have implemented some meaningful changes and initiatives:
- We produced three color issues highlighting Fourth of July, Halloween, and the Bromfield prom.
- Two townwide issues, sent to all Harvard and Devens households, informed all residents, not just subscribers, of how Town Meeting and elections affects them. Our award-winning “Warrant in Plain English” provided essential information needed to participate in Harvard’s democracy.
- We gave our reporters and contributors their first pay raise in 18 years. It was small, but a raise nonetheless, showing how grateful we are for our dedicated writers, editors, proofreaders, photographers, and layout staff.
- We offered all staff members the opportunity to attend the New England News and Press Association conference. We attended seminars to help us develop professionally, and we garnered awards for writing and photography, including a bronze medal for overall excellence among small weekly newspapers in New England.
- We provided in-depth, up-to-date coverage of the closing of the Nashoba Valley Medical Center, and we continue to report on this important regional crisis. Our coverage, thanks to our editor John Osborn, was often ahead of the much larger Boston media outlets. We’re also reporting on how UMass Memorial Health hopes to return a stand-alone emergency department to our region.
- We monitored the changes in Devens, reporting on the lifting of the housing cap that will affect Harvard’s schools and the future of the entire region. We’ll continue to follow the working group formed to guide increased residential development in Devens at a time when the state faces a significant housing deficit.
- We upgraded our subscription and advertising management software, a long overdue and necessary improvement.
Unfortunately, not all of our news is rosy. Our advertising dipped 10% last year. That might not sound like a lot, but that’s the difference between being solvent or not. And it’s hardly the first year that we’ve ended in the red. The Press continues to struggle with sustainability, but we’re committed to making things work.
And that’s where you come in
Are you a sustaining subscriber? If so, thank you! You’re helping us meet our expenses.
- To become a sustainer, click the “Be a Sustainer” button at harvardpress.com to join your neighbors in valuing Harvard’s independent, local news source.
- Can’t be a sustainer, but still want to offer support? Consider joining our newly forming editorial advisory board. Apply at https://forms.gle/2NFUe2JNt2rbUc698.
- Do you patronize our advertisers? Nothing goes further to keep the Press in print than our advertising. Please buy from our loyal, local advertisers when you make a purchase or employ a service. And the next time you patronize one of them, be sure to mention you saw their ad in the Press! Also, if you use a business that we may not know about, please make us aware or mention to the business that they should be in the Press to be visible to the Harvard market.
In short, we can’t do this without you—as readers, sustainers, advertisers. Please do what you can to make sure our independent newspaper survives.
Lisa Aciukewicz and Sue Robbins are co-owners and publishers of the Press.
