The September 14 NENPA eBulletin is out! Award notifications have gone out, and now it’s time to make plans for the NENPA Leadership Summit, October 8–9 at the Publick House in Sturbridge. Join us as we celebrate excellence in New England journalism at the Awards Luncheon on October 9, and catch up on the latest industry news, training, events and resources from across the region.

Awards Have Been Announced — Now Make Plans to Join Us in Sturbridge

Newsroom Spotlight: Worcester Business Journal

INDUSTRY NEWS

The Enterprise Launches The Dorothy G. Wayman Fellowship, A Watchdog Environmental Reporting Fellowship on Cape Cod

Report For America Host Newsroom Applications Open

JOB LISTINGS

Worcester Biz Journal seeks a senior staff writer

USA TODAY Seeking General Election Night Stringers across Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire

News Editor, Valley News, West Lebanon, New Hampshire

Remote page designer, Newspapers of New England

EVENTS & WEBINARS

Sep 15, 2026 11:00 AM in ET
The Environment-Public Health Link: Reporting With Rigor

Sep 15, 2026 7:00 PM in ET
SPJ-NE Public Record 101 with former SPJ President Dave Cuillier

Sep 16, 2026 03:00 PM in ET
Rising Energy Bills, Climate, and the 2026 Midterms

Sep 23, 2026 01:00 PM ET
The impact of data centers on the environment and health in rural areas

October 8-9, 2026
NENPA Leadership Summit, Sturbridge, MA

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Bella Grimaldi, of Suffolk University, named one of New York Times Corps Members

Meet NEFAC’s Negri Institute Student Fellows

TRANSITIONS

Worcester Business Journal Editor Brad Kane to Depart After 11 Years, Mark Conti, Will Succeed Kane as Editor

McGrory ends his time at BU, makes move to Globe permanent

REPORTING & NEWSROOM RESOURCES

How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?

Analysis of Globe’s B-Side newsletter for Generation Z – A Media Operator

OpenAI expands initiatives to support journalism from classrooms to newsrooms

New American Journalism Project report shows how nonprofit local news has moved beyond proof of concept

Award notifications are out, the program is set, and now it’s time to make plans to join us for the 2026 NENPA Leadership Summit, October 8–9 at the Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

This year’s award honorees will be recognized during the Awards Luncheon on Friday, October 9, bringing journalists, news organizations, colleagues and supporters from across New England together to celebrate outstanding journalism, leadership and service. If you or someone from your organization has been recognized, we hope you’ll join us in Sturbridge to celebrate—and stay for a full day focused on what comes next for local news.

This year’s Summit, “What’s Next: Leading the Future of Local News,” brings together an exceptional group of journalism leaders for conversations about the ideas, experiments and opportunities shaping the future of our industry. From AI and newsroom transformation to new approaches to audience, revenue, growth and sustainability—and ultimately the changing role of journalism itself—the program is designed to offer practical ideas and new perspectives you can bring back to your organization.

Two important deadlines are approaching: the Publick House room block is available through September 23, and Leadership Summit registration closes September 30.

Make the most of the Summit by arriving on Thursday, October 8, for our informal Welcome Dinner with attendees, speakers, NENPA board members and staff. A special NENPA room rate of $249 per night, plus applicable taxes and fees, is available for Thursday night. To reserve a room, call (508) 347-3313 and mention the New England Newspaper and Press Association room block or group code 1026NE. Rooms must be reserved by September 23 to receive the group rate.

On Friday, October 9, we’ll present a full day of sessions, conversations, the Awards Luncheon and opportunities to connect with colleagues from throughout New England. The full program is below.

Make Plans to Join Us in Sturbridge

Whether you’re coming to celebrate an award, hear from industry leaders, connect with colleagues or explore ideas for your organization’s future, the 2026 NENPA Leadership Summit is an opportunity to come together with the New England news community and focus on what’s ahead.

Registration closes September 30. Make your plans now and join us October 8–9 in Sturbridge.

OCTOBER 9 SUMMIT SCHEDULE

8:00 AM – Registration, coffee, and continental breakfast

9:00 AM – AI and What’s Next: Building the AI-Ready News Organization

We’ll begin by moving beyond the AI hype and looking at what it can actually mean for a news organization. Members of the NENPA and Google News Initiative AI cohort will share projects they have spent the past several months developing: what they tried, what they learned, and where they see real opportunities to put AI to work.

Then Aimee Rinehart, formerly Senior Product Manager for AI Strategy at The Associated Press and now focused on strategic journalism innovation through Frontier Collective, will take the conversation further: How should news leaders be preparing their organizations for AI – not someday, but now?

Rinehart will explore the opportunities, decisions, and responsibilities ahead as AI becomes increasingly embedded in the business and practice of journalism, and what leaders should be thinking about as they prepare their organizations for what comes next.

10:30 AM – What’s Working: New Models for Local News

What happens when you bring together leaders from three very different—and highly innovative—news organizations?

PJ Browning of The Post and Courier, Lauren Gustus of The Salt Lake Tribune, and Karen Bordeleau of The New Bedford Light will offer a candid look at how their organizations are experimenting, growing, and adapting.

Together, they’ll explore audience development, geographic expansion, philanthropy, membership, collaboration and new approaches to sustainability – including what has worked, what hasn’t, and what they’re trying next.

Guiding the conversation will be Liz White Notarangelo, coach and consultant with the Local Media Association, where she works directly with publishers and news organizations exploring new approaches to sustainability, transformation, and journalism funding. Liz also brings deep New England roots and firsthand experience leading a local news organization through enormous change.

Together, this group brings an unusual combination of experience to the table: leaders who know the challenges of sustaining local journalism from the inside and who are actively working on new ways forward.

Expect a candid conversation about what’s working, what isn’t, what they’re learning, and what other news leaders might take home and try themselves.

12:30 PM – Celebrating New England Journalism

The Awards Luncheon will be a highlight of the Leadership Summit, bringing the New England news community together to recognize outstanding journalism, leadership and service. This year’s honorees have now been notified, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements with colleagues from across New England in Sturbridge.

The luncheon will feature the New England Newspaper of the Year Awards, Publick Occurrences Awards, Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award, New England First Amendment Award, A-Mark Prizes, AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year, Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award and The Cornerstone Award.

2:00 PM – Looking Ahead with Tom Rosenstiel

In the afternoon, we’ll step back from individual technologies and business models to consider an even bigger question:

What does journalism itself need to become next?

Tom Rosenstiel, one of the country’s leading thinkers on journalism and co-author of the landmark The Elements of Journalism, will draw from his new book, The Next Journalism, to explore how journalism can become more useful, trustworthy and connected to the people and communities it serves.

At a moment when so much of the conversation about journalism focuses on what the industry has lost, Rosenstiel offers something especially valuable: a vision for what journalism can become next.

3:00 PM – Closing Conversation: What Will You Take Home?

Before we leave Sturbridge, we’ll bring the conversation back to the room: What challenged your thinking? What questions are we still wrestling with? And, most importantly, what ideas will you take home and put to work?

The Enterprise Newspapers has announced the Dorothy G. Wayman Fellowship, a new full-time, paid fellowship dedicated to watchdog coverage of development and overdevelopment across Cape Cod’s Upper Cape towns.

The 12-month fellowship will place an early-career journalist on a dedicated beat covering development in the Cape Cod region, specifically Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee and Bourne, and its effects on traffic, water quality, open space and habitat preservation, drilling into the heart of issues reshaping the region faster than most local newsrooms currently have the capacity to cover.

“This fellowship will deliver something crucial that our readers asked us for directly throughout our recent community listening sessions: news on what’s being built in town, and deep dives into how it will impact residents, from water quality and sewer capacity to traffic and parking,” Director of Audience Development and Mashpee Enterprise editor Calli Remillard said. “Overdevelopment is a real problem on Cape Cod. There is only so much land here, and making sure that what is left is protected—our open space, preservation areas and watersheds—is a critical issue among residents, but the information isn’t always accessible or easy to understand. This role will bridge that gap.”

The fellowship is structured as a teaching-newsroom program, pairing full-time reporting with a defined curriculum in regulatory literacy, public-records proficiency, accountability reporting and environmental data analysis. The yearlong program is built around a defined, quarterly-benchmarked curriculum—clear reporting milestones, structured mentorship and regular progress reviews—designed to produce sustained, rigorous coverage rather than one-off stories.

The Dorothy G. Wayman Fellow will sit inside the rooms where these decisions get made—planning boards, conservation commissions, Cape Cod Commission hearings—tracking projects from initial filing through final approval, asking the questions those review processes are supposed to answer but often don’t get asked or answered publicly. This work will dive deep, pulling engineering and environmental reports apart line by line to determine what a wastewater system is actually rated to handle, what a septic upgrade does or doesn’t solve, and how much runoff a site can absorb before it becomes someone else’s problem downstream. The fellow’s job is to go deeper than the headlines a new development generates, talking directly to scientists, engineers, and environmental experts to understand what’s really in the reports filed alongside every major project and following the slower-moving story underneath all of it: how continued building on already-strained land compounds with coastal erosion over time, turning today’s approved project into tomorrow’s harder-to-reverse damage. It’s accountability journalism built to answer the “why” behind the problems residents already feel every year.

The position is in-person and full-time, with a weekly stipend. The fellowship includes funds earmarked for professional development and a dedicated reporting budget, and comes with an additional monthly stipend to support the fellow’s relocation to Cape Cod and mitigate high costs of securing local housing.

Applications open September 22, 2026, with the fellow beginning work June 1, 2027. Journalism organizations, educators, and networks are encouraged to share this opportunity with early-career reporters, recent journalism graduates, and members interested in environmental and accountability reporting.

Full details and the application will be available at https://www.capenews.net/site/fellowship.html over the coming days and weeks leading up to the opening of the application portal on September 22.

The 2027 Report for America Host Newsroom application opens September 14th, with 80 new positions available to newsrooms across the country. The deadline to apply is October 19.

RFA is looking to support newsrooms interested in expanding coverage and strengthening their reporting capacity and sustainability efforts — particularly those focused on:

• Under covered communities and beats

• Photography and visual journalism

• Sports reporting

• Rural communities

• Communities of color

We also encourage BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving newsrooms to apply.

Want to learn more?

Register to attend a Report for America information session to learn about the application process, eligibility and the support our host newsrooms receive.

All sessions begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Host Newsroom Virtual Information Sessions
September 17th
September 24th
October 1st
October 8th
October 15th

Registration Now Open for 2026 NENPA Leadership Summit

Registration is now open for the 2026 NENPA Leadership Summit, taking place October 8–9 at the Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. This year’s theme, “What’s Next: Leading the Future of Local News,” will bring news leaders together to explore new tools, business models, leadership approaches and journalism’s evolving role in our communities.

The Summit begins Thursday evening with an informal Welcome Dinner for attendees, speakers, NENPA board members and staff. Friday’s program will move from practical experimentation with AI to conversations with news leaders pursuing new models for local journalism, before looking more broadly at the future of the industry and what attendees can take back to their own organizations.

Read more

Newsroom Spotlight: Worcester Business Journal

From its modern office in downtown Worcester, just down the street from City Hall, Worcester Business Journal has a front-row seat to a city—and a regional economy—that has undergone enormous change.

For more than three decades, WBJ has chronicled the companies, institutions, developments and people shaping Central Massachusetts. Along the way, it has developed into something more than a publication covering business transactions. It breaks daily news, provides market intelligence, convenes business leaders through events and recognition programs, and invests in deeper reporting that holds some of the region’s most powerful institutions accountable.

Read more

INDUSTRY NEWS

JOBS

Senior Editor — Northeastern Global News

Membership Coordinator, Operations Manager & Director of Audience Outreach & Community Engagement – The Maine Monitor

Deputy News Editor / Reporter – Daily Hampshire Gazette

EVENTS

September 8 – Ethical Reporting Saves Lives: In Recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month — 12 p.m. ET

October 8-9 – NENPA Leadership Summit, Sturbridge, MA

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Celebrating 150 Years of Local Journalism — Brattleboro Reformer

Maine Healthcare Transparency Advocate to Receive NEFAC’s Citizenship Award

Reporters From Across New England to Attend NEFAC’s Annual Investigative Journalism Program

Introducing the 2026 Cohort of the ONA Women’s Leadership Accelerator, Including Two From New England

Nominations Open for E&P’s News Executive of the Year, Formerly Publisher of the Year

REPORTING & NEWSROOM RESOURCES

How to File FOIA Requests Like a Pro — RCFP

Read Your Work Out Loud and Other Tips for Finding Your Writing Voice — Poynter

To Survive, Journalism Must Become Indispensable — Poynter

Editors giving SPJ voluntary ethics code an AI-era reboot

Poynter’s 2027 leadership track offers training for journalists at every stage of leadership

A New Book Looks at How AI Is Rewiring the Newsroom, for Better and Worse — Nieman Lab

AUDIENCE, ENGAGEMENT & REVENUE

Why Gen Z Is Turning to Radio for Trust, Belonging, and Community

Gen Z Isn’t Reading Your Site, Now What? — E&P

Asking Audiences for Money? Here Is How to Make a Stronger Case — Trusting News

What Happens When Content Creators and Journalists Come Together?

Here’s How Newsrooms Are Working With Influencers — Poynter

The Civic Action Toolbox Connects Local Reporting to Public Meetings, Comment Periods and the Officials Who Make Decisions — RJI

Design Events and Digital Spaces to Create — and Measure — Impact — American Press Institute

LION’s Revamped Resource Library Helps Local Publishers Grow Revenue, Audience, and Impact

Serving Audience and Community Was the Throughline at LMA’s Local Media Fest 2026 — E&P

California legislature passes a major local news funding bill: “If you hire more people, you get more money”

Why SFGATE launched an app instead of a paywall, and called it “Friends”

How to Build Social-First Data Visualizations — RJI

How AI Can Elevate Every Media Salesperson to Be a Better Marketing Consultant — E&P

Time’s AI-Only Ads May Be Marketing’s Next Frontier — MarTech

PRESS FREEDOM & MEDIA LAW

NEFAC Suing the Narragansett Police Department for Public Records

Three Years After Police Raid on Kansas Newspaper, Reporter Settles Lawsuit for $850K

Oppressive Freelance Contracts Add to the Chill on Journalism — Freedom of the Press Foundation

Has the Supreme Court Rendered the First Amendment’s Press Clause Invisible? — SCOTUSblog

More Than 800 USA Today Co. Employees Want the Company to End Its New Palantir Partnership — Nieman Lab

Stars and Stripes Journalists Facing Firing Get 1-Week Reprieve — Politico

New Hampshire Journalist Damien Fisher to Receive Freedom of Information Award

News/Media Alliance Statement on Google Ad Tech Remedies Ruling

How Mass Surveillance From Online Advertising Puts Journalists at Risk — CPJ

The National Trust for Local News is expanding to a fourth state with the acquisition of the Vermont Community Newspaper Group, a family of award-winning weekly newspapers and digital platforms covering more than a dozen northern Vermont communities.

Thanks to a community-first decision by VTCNG’s owners, the National Trust will acquire five weekly newspapers and their websites serving more than a dozen communities in Northern Vermont. The titles are:

○           The Stowe Reporter

○           News & Citizen (covering greater Lamoille County)

○           The Other Paper (covering South Burlington)

○           The Citizen (covering Charlotte/Hinesburg)

○           Shelburne News

The deal will close this month. The entire VTCNG team, which includes 15 full-time and two part-time employees, will be retained. The group’s office will remain at its current location on Mountain Road in Stowe.

Citing increased financial stresses on their business, VTCNG majority owner Bob Miller and minority owners Judy Kearns and Biddle Duke earlier this year decided to establish nonprofit ownership by the end of 2026. They identified the National Trust, a nonprofit operating dozens of news organizations in three states, as the right home for VTCNG. They are selling the papers for a nominal fee. VTCNG will also continue to publish the biannual Stowe Guide & Magazine.

Under the National Trust, these publications will exist solely for public benefit. They will continue to operate under local leadership, ensuring continuity for readers, advertisers, employees and vendors.

“Establishing a sustainable future for our community newspapers has been our priority for several years,” the owners said. “By selling these publications to the National Trust, not only can they survive but there will be investment in expanding coverage to thrive in a climate where local news is so important and increasingly difficult to find.”

The National Trust will preserve these well-known titles while providing the capital, expertise and infrastructure needed to unlock the group’s growth potential.

“These publications have a solid foundation from which a stronger future can be built,” said Tom Wiley, chief executive officer of the National Trust. “They are vital local news sources for Northern Vermont, led by an experienced team that has trusted relationships with readers, advertisers and a wide range of community partners.”

The acquisition ensures VTCNG publications continue to provide enterprising hyperlocal journalism for their communities, while benefiting from the National Trust’s model of investment in news innovation, audience growth and community engagement.

News industry veteran Bill Stille will immediately begin working with the VTCNG team as a transition and transformation adviser provided by the National Trust. Stille is an experienced news media leader, having held key roles at The Detroit News, The Columbus Dispatch and The Buffalo News. His work will include identifying opportunities to strengthen partnerships and collaborate with statewide stakeholders.

The entrance into the Vermont market marks the latest stage of growth for the National Trust, which in July acquired two Georgia newspapers from McClatchy Media.

From its modern office in downtown Worcester, just down the street from City Hall, Worcester Business Journal has a front-row seat to a city—and a regional economy—that has undergone enormous change.

For more than three decades, WBJ has chronicled the companies, institutions, developments and people shaping Central Massachusetts. Along the way, it has developed into something more than a publication covering business transactions. It breaks daily news, provides market intelligence, convenes business leaders through events and recognition programs, and invests in deeper reporting that holds some of the region’s most powerful institutions accountable.

Outgoing Editor Brad Kane describes WBJ as something akin to a community newspaper for the region’s business community.

“We’re sort of the glue that ties that community together,” Kane said.

That role has become increasingly important as other media organizations have reduced their presence in Central Massachusetts.

“As other media outlets have scaled back their operations, particularly in Central Massachusetts, there remains a need for a strong independent voice in the region,” Kane said.

WBJ has worked to fill part of that void—but it isn’t trying to fill all of it.

The publication knows precisely whom it serves: professionals throughout Central Massachusetts who make hiring and spending decisions. That clarity influences what WBJ covers, the products it creates and, just as importantly, where it chooses to invest its limited reporting resources.

Behind much of its editorial strategy is a deceptively simple question that may be particularly relevant to other small newsrooms:

How much time is this story worth?

Some stories deserve an hour. Others deserve 10 hours. And occasionally, a story deserves 100. Knowing the difference has become an essential part of how WBJ operates.

📰 Snapshot

• Founded: 1989, with publishing roots dating to 1982
• Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
• Ownership: New England Business Media
• Publication: Biweekly print edition with daily digital news coverage
• Primary Audience: Business owners, executives and professionals throughout Central Massachusetts
• Editorial Focus: Breaking business news, analysis, market intelligence, enterprise and investigative journalism
• Major Products: Worcester Business Journal, Book of Lists, online Data Center, Power 100 and specialty publications
• Events: Approximately 10–12 annually
• Newsroom Structure: Local editorial operation supported by shared companywide services in research, audience development, digital, accounting and other functions

🕰️ More Than Three Decades of Business Journalism

Although Worcester Business Journal was founded in 1989, its roots extend further back.

Its lineage began with Business Worcester, launched in 1982 to serve the growing Central Massachusetts business community. When that publication later ceased operations, members of its team helped launch Worcester Business Journal in 1989, establishing the publication that continues today.

Few people represented that continuity more than longtime publisher and CEO Peter Stanton, whose career in Worcester publishing began in 1979 and stretched across Worcester Magazine, Business Worcester and Worcester Business Journal. Stanton retired in January 2026 after 46 years in Worcester publishing.

Now WBJ is experiencing another significant transition. Kane is departing after more than a decade as editor, meaning two longtime leaders are leaving the organization in the same year.

The transition comes as both Worcester and the media industry continue to change—and as WBJ considers how to preserve what has worked while building the next version of a regional business publication.

✍️ Editorial Approach: Know What Each Story Is Worth

One of the clearest lessons from WBJ is the discipline the newsroom applies to deciding how much reporting time a story deserves.

Kane divides the newsroom’s work into roughly three buckets: news of the day, feature and analytical reporting, and larger investigative or enterprise projects.

Breaking news might require an hour. A substantial feature could require 10. An investigative project might consume anywhere from 30 to 100 hours.

In a small newsroom, treating every story the same simply isn’t possible.

Kane uses the example of an executive departure. Years ago, a reporter might have spent an entire day interviewing the departing executive, successor, board members and community leaders. Today, WBJ may turn a straightforward announcement around in less than an hour—preserving reporting resources for stories where additional time will produce significantly greater value.

That doesn’t mean abandoning ambitious journalism.

The newsroom aims to produce roughly one major investigative or enterprise project per quarter, although staffing and resources sometimes make that difficult. Those stories, Kane said, are often the journalism readers remember years later.

The lesson is not that every story should be short. It’s that newsrooms should be intentional about where they spend their most limited resource: reporting time.

💰 Revenue & Sustainability: More Than Advertising

WBJ’s business model extends well beyond traditional print advertising.

Subscriptions have become an increasingly important area of focus, with audience development emerging as a major growth priority for New England Business Media.

A standard WBJ subscription includes print and digital access, while readers seeking deeper business intelligence can purchase higher-level access to the Data Center.

The publication also produces custom publications and sponsored sections for advertisers, clearly distinguishing that material from independent editorial coverage.

And then there are events.

WBJ typically produces 10 to 12 events annually, ranging from educational programs such as its Economic Forecast and industry forums to major recognition events. Its largest, 40 Under Forty, can draw hundreds of attendees to Mechanics Hall.

Events don’t simply generate revenue. They bring new people into the WBJ ecosystem.

An award recipient may encounter the publication through an event, develop a positive association with the brand, become a regular reader or subscriber, and eventually contribute to the publication or participate in future programs.

The portfolio is continually evaluated based on attendance, sponsorship interest, nominations and profitability. New programs are added where WBJ believes it has an opportunity to own a subject, while events that no longer perform can be retired.

Taken together, subscriptions, premium data, advertising, sponsored content, specialty publications and events create multiple ways for WBJ to generate value from the audience and community it has built.

⚙️ Sharing Resources Without Losing Local Identity

WBJ operates locally, but it doesn’t operate alone.

Parent company New England Business Media also publishes Mainebiz and the Hartford Business Journal. Each publication maintains its own locally focused editorial operation, while functions including accounting, audience development, digital operations, research and executive leadership are shared.

For Kane, the structure allows the individual publications to retain their local identities while benefiting from expertise they might not be able to afford independently.

Research is a particularly important example. Two researchers work across the publications to produce and maintain the data behind hundreds of annual lists.

Shared digital expertise also allows best practices involving websites, email performance, technology and audience behavior to be identified and distributed across the company.

“it’s a great way to run a company efficiently,” Kane said.

For other local news organizations, the model raises an interesting question: What functions truly need to be duplicated in every publication, and what expertise could be shared without sacrificing local journalism or local identity?

✅ What’s Working

Knowing Exactly Who You Serve

WBJ isn’t trying to be everything to everyone.

Its audience is deliberately defined around the Central Massachusetts business community, particularly professionals making hiring, purchasing, investment and other business decisions.

That focus helps determine not only what WBJ covers, but what it doesn’t need to cover. Instead of trying to replicate a general-interest daily newspaper, it concentrates its resources where it believes it can provide distinctive value to its audience.

For smaller news organizations facing ever-expanding demands and limited resources, that clarity may be as important as any individual product or revenue strategy.

Being Digital Every Day

Although Worcester Business Journal’s print edition appears every other week, its editorial rhythm is anything but biweekly.

“We really make it a goal to be right in people’s inboxes every day,” Kane said.

The newsroom competes to break business news online while using print differently. The biweekly edition provides an opportunity to step back from daily developments and offer analysis, features and market intelligence.

That distinction allows WBJ to serve both immediate and deeper information needs without asking print and digital to perform the same function.

Putting People at the Center

WBJ also deliberately puts people at the center of its coverage.

“The best stories are told through people,” Kane said.

Faces fill the print edition, awards such as 40 Under Forty and Outstanding Women in Business, and special features like the Power 100 turn the people shaping Central Massachusetts into an entry point for understanding the region’s economy.

Building Authority Through Data

Perhaps the most transferable idea from WBJ is its investment in lists and proprietary data.

Kane considers lists fundamental to the identity of a business journal because they give readers usable market intelligence rather than simply another article.

The annual Book of Lists includes approximately 45 lists, while the publication’s premium online Data Center offers continuously updated information and allows subscribers to download data and create customized lists.

New England Business Media’s research staff produces hundreds of lists annually across its publications, gathering and verifying information from thousands of businesses.

For community newspapers, the subject matter might be different, but Kane believes the concept can transfer. Public salaries, property information, local businesses and other community data could potentially become useful reader products.

The larger lesson: information itself can become a product when a news organization organizes, verifies and presents it in a way readers can’t easily find elsewhere.

🔎 Journalism That Makes an Impact

One of WBJ’s most significant recent investigations began with Managing Editor Eric Casey’s knowledge of Massachusetts’ cannabis industry.

Before joining WBJ, Casey worked in the cannabis industry and later began writing about it, eventually launching his own Substack. That specialized knowledge became an asset when sources began describing serious dysfunction inside the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission.

Casey’s subsequent investigation examined allegations of a toxic workplace and organizational dysfunction—but importantly for WBJ’s audience, it also showed how those problems affected cannabis businesses struggling to get licenses approved.

The reporting gained attention across Massachusetts, was cited by other media organizations and became part of the broader public discussion surrounding problems at the agency.

Casey has also broken significant stories on Central Massachusetts real estate, including reporting on the financial problems and bankruptcy of a prominent Worcester developer.

For Casey, the value of business journalism lies partly in creating information that didn’t previously exist.

“The only people creating new information really are journalists out there,” he said while discussing journalism’s role in an age of artificial intelligence.

🤝 Being the Glue—and Still Being a Watchdog

The events, awards, lists and journalism all contribute to a larger goal: making WBJ useful to the Central Massachusetts business community.

But being deeply connected to that community doesn’t mean simply celebrating it.

In fact, some of the journalism Kane and Managing Editor Eric Casey are proudest of has challenged powerful institutions and individuals within the same community the publication depends upon for readers, sources, event participants, subscribers and advertisers.

WBJ’s reporting on Worcester’s Polar Park development scrutinized the finances behind one of the city’s most consequential economic development projects, even as the publication’s editorial board supported the project itself.

“We’re still like, ‘Hey, there’s some things that, as journalists, you’re supposed to dot the I’s and cross the T’s,’” Kane said.

That balance is central to WBJ’s identity.

Its proximity to the business community is an advantage: it creates sources, expertise, relationships and a deep understanding of the market. But that proximity also creates a journalistic responsibility to scrutinize the same institutions and people with whom it has built those relationships.

Being the glue doesn’t mean giving up the watchdog role.

⚠️ Challenges: Doing More With a Small Team

WBJ’s challenges will sound familiar to newsrooms across New England.

The publication covers a large geographic and economic landscape with a relatively small editorial staff.

“There are a lot of stories that kind of slip through my fingers on a daily basis,” Casey said.

That makes the newsroom’s emphasis on allocating time intentionally even more important.

Kane identified another industrywide challenge: finding and developing the next generation of journalists.

He said the pipeline of young reporters appeared to weaken during and after the pandemic, making it more difficult for midsized publications to find journalists with strong reporting fundamentals, news judgment and confidence.

WBJ uses internships and freelancers to supplement its staff, but Kane sees an opportunity for journalism organizations and press associations to do more to connect young journalists with local newsrooms.

🤖 Experimenting with AI—Carefully

WBJ is already incorporating artificial intelligence into some newsroom workflows.

Kane uses ChatGPT as what he describes as a backup copy editor, running stories through it after his own edit to identify potential AP style and other errors. He has also experimented with AI for formulaic items and some award profiles.

The company’s research operation uses AI for some preliminary research and discovery, followed by its normal verification process.

Casey uses AI primarily as a research assistant, comparing it to Wikipedia: potentially valuable for finding paths to original sources, but not something whose output should simply be dropped into a published story.

“You don’t want to just take what it’s telling you and put it directly into an article,” Casey said.

Both see potential for AI to handle tasks that free journalists to spend more time on the work that requires human reporting, judgment and sourcing.

🏆 Recognition

WBJ’s journalism and presentation have earned recognition from NENPA and nationally.

In NENPA’s most recent New England Better Newspaper Competition, the publication earned First Place for Overall Design and Presentation in the specialty publication category and First Place for Social Issues Feature Story for Mica Kanner-Mascolo’s “Overcoming Barriers.” Its reporting, photography and design received additional honors across categories ranging from health and housing to regional economic issues.

The recognition extends beyond New England. In May, Managing Editor Eric Casey was named Journalist of the Year for midsized publications by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.

For Casey, the honor offered a rare opportunity to reflect on work that normally moves quickly from one deadline to the next.

“There’s so little time to actually sit and reflect on what you do on a day-to-day basis in journalism,” he said. “It really kind of recharged my battery.”

💡 Lessons for Other Newsrooms

Several ideas from Worcester Business Journal stood out as particularly transferable.

Know exactly whom you serve. Trying to serve everyone can dilute limited resources. A clearly defined audience makes decisions about coverage, products, and priorities easier.

Know what a story is worth. Don’t spend 10 hours producing a story when one hour will deliver most of the value. Save those additional nine hours for journalism that genuinely requires them.

Turn information into products. Lists, rankings, databases and public information can become useful audience products when newsrooms organize and present them with authority.

Don’t make important journalism feel like “eating your vegetables.” Kane rejects the idea that necessary civic or business reporting has to be boring. The information may be complicated, but the presentation and storytelling don’t have to be.

Use events strategically. Events can generate revenue, deepen relationships, create content and introduce new audiences to the publication—but each should have a clear purpose and sustainable economics.

Let print and digital do different jobs. WBJ uses digital for immediacy while allowing its biweekly print publication to emphasize analysis, features and deeper context.

Look for opportunities to share expertise. Not every publication needs to independently maintain every business function. Shared research, digital, audience and administrative resources can create efficiencies while allowing journalism to remain local.

Protect time for ambitious work. Efficiency on routine coverage creates room for the investigations and enterprise stories that ultimately build a publication’s reputation.

🔮 Looking Ahead

Worcester Business Journal is entering its next chapter at a time of unusual transition.

Longtime publisher Peter Stanton retired earlier this year after a career in Worcester publishing spanning more than four decades. Kane is now departing after more than a decade as WBJ’s editor.

At the same time, Casey and the rest of the newsroom continue covering a region undergoing its own economic transformation.

Casey expects technology to play a growing role in how that journalism is gathered and presented—from better uses of public databases and AI-assisted research to more visual and interactive forms of digital storytelling.

He also sees an opportunity to build stronger relationships with younger professionals who may not yet be CEOs or senior executives but could become WBJ’s core audience in the years ahead.

“If you’re only tapping into a 45-plus audience, you’re dealing with a shrinking audience at some point,” Casey said.

The challenge for WBJ’s next generation of leadership will be to evolve without losing what has made the publication valuable in the first place: deep knowledge of its market, useful information for a clearly defined audience, strong relationships within the business community and a willingness to ask difficult questions of that community when necessary.

For other New England newsrooms, perhaps the most useful takeaway from WBJ is a simple one:

Not every piece of journalism needs the same investment, but every investment should be intentional.

A six-minute story can serve an audience. A 100-hour investigation can change a conversation.

Knowing when to do each may be one of the most important skills a small newsroom can develop.

The Massachusetts Senate has unanimously approved journalist shield protections for the first time, marking a historic milestone in the effort to strengthen press freedom in the Commonwealth. The measure, adopted as part of the Senate’s public records legislation, would protect journalists from being compelled to reveal confidential sources except under narrowly defined circumstances established by the courts.

While the legislation must still be reconciled with the House version in conference committee before heading to the governor’s desk, the vote represents the strongest progress the proposal has made after years of advocacy.

NENPA is proud to be part of the coalition supporting this effort, alongside the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, the New England First Amendment Coalition, Boston Globe Media, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, and other organizations committed to protecting the public’s right to know.

Read the full coalition press release here: https://www.nenpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Press-Release_-Senate-Approves-Shield-Bill.pdf