Here Back East

Why Weeklies?

The enduring significance and community impact of weekly newspapers amid declining trends.

Lenny Ackerman

June 20, 2025

I subscribe to six weekly newspapers: locally in New York, I receive The East Hampton Star, The Sag Harbor Express, and the North Shore Leader; in Florida, I get The Palm Beach Post. In Maine, I subscribe to The County. For me, the relevance of these weeklies is not to chase the news but to understand and reflect a bit on community. My camp town, Danforth, Maine, has no dedicated newspaper, but The County reports on the entire Aroostook County region. The local Long Island papers not only report on the week past but in the Letters to the Editor are interesting opinions and reflections on community and national events. Then there is The Mountain Messenger in Downieville, my favorite paper. Of course, I am biased since it publishes my weekly column. However, even from afar, the local news brings me closer to the people who strive to put out a paper that has been in existence continuously since the Gold Rush days. In terms of the business of local newspapers, it is reported that weeklies are on the decline, perhaps more so than dailies. I do not buy it. Sustaining weeklies has a place in local communities built upon a foundation of honest reporting and being the watchdog of local government. The weeklies are also the forum for young and old to express themselves by volunteering, as in my case, and as start-up newbie journalists. I recently reread Mark Twain’s early journalistic writing and see how he developed a style later reflected in his fiction and lectures. Weeklies have a place historically and forever.

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