It’s no secret that local news has taken a huge hit as its business model was upended by the internet. As advertising revenue in print papers spiraled downward, independent community newspapers got bought up by big companies, who then merged, gutted and/or shuttered them in an effort to squeeze out the last drops of revenue — which created an urgent demand from the public about local government and general goings-on (see our Media & Resources page for some of the media coverage of this issue).

Good news, though: independent hyperlocal news websites — many of them run as nonprofits or simply as a labor of love — are arising from the ashes of local newspapers. The Eastern Mass. News Alliance (formerly the Metro West News Alliance, hence our web address — new website coming soon) are joining forces to maximize our revenue while still keeping each site’s content unique and hyperlocal.

What we’re working on

• Selling advertising collectively across several of our sites at one time, boosting reach for both news sites and advertisers.
• Amending Massachusetts state law to allow cities and towns to satisfy the requirement to publish paid public notices on digital-only news sites (current law requires them to be published in a paper newspaper, even if a local paper no longer exists).

This website

You may have noticed that the URL for this site is mwnewsalliance.com because we used to be called Metro West News Alliance. We’ve hired a web development team and will be launching a new, more professional site this winter at emnewsalliance.com — this site will automatically redirect starting then.

Get in touch

Are you a news site owner, business, government official or other interested party who’d like to help? Let us know! Email awaugh@emnewsalliance.com or  ebenjamin@emnewsalliance.com.