A New Era

How many news organizations last a decade? A quarter century? It’s a fickle industry full of uncertainty, and increasingly so in the days of the internet and social media offering—nay, demanding—instant gratification, and news consumers who have so many outlets to find out what’s going on in the world around them.Then you have The Sag Harbor Express, which traces its lineage to 1859. And the Press News Group, whose flagship paper, The Southampton Press, was first published in 1897. For more than a century, these two local companies have not only survived but thrived as sources of news on the South Fork.

This week marks a moment of historic transition, a new era for these two legendary news organizations, as they come together not as an act of desperation but as a confident step into a bright future. Separately, the companies have award-winning histories and, more importantly, the kind of deep, symbiotic relationships with their communities that any publisher would envy.

Together, two strong community news organizations will be something even better.In truth, it’s an easy merger. The Press and Express have deep ties, both personal and professional. The two organizations have always been competitive in a friendly way, but for years the staff of both have worked together, and cheered each other’s successes. They share a culture and a vision of what community journalism is about: providing not just local news but insight, provocative commentary, and stories that celebrate the lives lived in our small communities, and mourn the losses when they inevitably occur. They want not just to spark conversations but to lead them.Bigger isn’t always better, but in the world of journalism it’s a gift to have more resources as long as a goal, with the reader at the forefront, is firmly established. The Press brings those resources to the table, and The Express brings a forward-thinking, innovative strategy to find new ways to both tell stories and lead important conversations that truly matter to a community, its businesses, its schools, its families.

If all goes as planned, readers won’t notice much in the short term—but will see big differences in the long term. More in-depth reporting. More substantive discussions about issues that matter in every part of the South Fork—not just Southampton, Sag Harbor and East Hampton, but Montauk, Hampton Bays, Noyac, Westhampton Beach, Springs. Both The Press and The Express succeed both for and because of their readership, and that relationship will grow and deepen—the “small-town newspapers,” all of them, will have even more reach into the neighborhoods and lives we document every day.

The result will be not just vibrant, compelling print newspapers but an essential web presence, magazines that go even deeper and celebrate the beauty and bounty of the region, live events that truly make a difference and entertain as well as inform, and new ways of telling stories with video and voice. At a moment when journalism is still navigating the biggest changes since Gutenberg’s first printing press, both organizations will be stronger, more agile, more innovative. In a word, better.

It’s a new era, for us and for the South Fork audience we serve. Be excited. We are.