The Press and its coverage of the Town Meeting on Monday have prompted me to write this note which has been brewing for months now. Here in Harvard we might not know how lucky we are to have an independent local paper keeping a curated eye on the goings-on about town. The Press has a dedicated (and likely underappreciated) staff dutifully reporting on important and also maybe less important events in our community.
Nextdoor Harvard spreads news faster, but it surely isn’t fact-checked and is full of (sometimes unsubstantiated) opinions. I have friends living in Winchester who lost their local paper some time ago and are unaware of how their local government is conducting itself. Yeah, maybe community cable coverage of town meetings feels sufficient, but it’s no substitute for digested reporting with a sense of responsibility. Without the Press what would it be like living here?
In 2021 our Press was recognized for being “an invaluable resource and service for the community” for its “Warrant in Plain English” ahead of Town Meeting. In addition the Press received five second- or third-place awards for other reporting and photography. Just because you are reading this means that you most likely are a subscriber, but perhaps you should consider becoming a sustaining subscriber if you aren’t one already. Talk it up among your Harvard friends and mention it to those Press advertisers you frequent. Silent appreciation doesn’t cut it. We need to be proud of our Press.
Richard Jenson
Mill Road
