Small daily in western Massachusetts hopes newsroom changes will 'help dispel the rumors of the death of print'

Northampton is near Springfield, Amherst
and Greenfield; map shows the cities' New
England County and Town Areas, the New
England adaptation of metropolitan areas.

A daily newspaper serving small towns in western Massachusetts has "decisively executed a unique new staffing plan to better bridge its reporters into local communities the newspaper serves," John Voket reports for the New England Newspaper and Press Association.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette is part of the Newspapers of New England chain that includes the Greenfield Recorder and the Amherst Bulletin. Its Massachusetts publisher, Michael Moses, told Voket that he hopes the Gazette’s changes will “help dispel the rumors of the death of print. We have been staffing up in our newsroom; we've reorganized our beats,” including the re-establishment of one for “cops and courts.” That followed several "coffee with the publisher" events to gather suggestions from readers.

Like many larger dailies have done, the Gazette now has fewer editors and four more reporters “out on the street reporting the news,” Moses said, adding that the changes have generated “a 20 percent boost in reporters’ story production – that’s in just about two months. And the reader response has been tremendous.”

The story doesn't give any audience data. Voket is an associate editor at The Newtown Bee in Connecticut, public-affairs director for that state's Connoisseur Media radio stations, and was the 2018-19 president of NENPA.

Another addition is a new nameplate, reflecting the paper's location amid small towns in the Connecticut River Valley. Moses said he had local artist Bob Marstall design it, and “magically he came back with exactly what we had in our heads – on first try he was very close to what we were looking for and after [a few] more passes, we had it.”