Jason Donnelly has always been involved in his community's news.
"I saw that our town needed a paper. I was one of the people, like many people in Hawley, was tired of not being able to get information," he said. "And I saw that we have the tools available to us to consolidate information."
He started the "Hawley Voice," an online news source for the town in 2010. After closing down in January, the "Stamford American" came to him, saying they were interested in creating a paper for Hawley.
"Hawley news just got to be so much that we decided it was time to give Hawley its own section," said publisher and owner Callie Melter-Smith. "And so we launched the Hawley paper three weeks ago."
And so far, the paper has been a success.
"Everybody was really happy and real receptive. Our first week, we sold out papers and i had to ask to ask for more. And this has happened two weeks in a row now. And we can't keep them in stock," said Jason, who is the the Hawley editor.
Though the history of Hawley newspapers is thin and not very promising, Jason says it was necessary for the growing community.
"it's personal. It's a personal feel. Hawley can claim something. It needs its own paper to talk about its own things," he explained.
Because a community paper belongs to the community.
"The community owns it. Those people hold me accountable to my paper," said Callie. "I may say that I own it, but really the town owns it. It's their paper."
The "Hawley American" is a weekly paper, and is published every Friday.
"I saw that our town needed a paper. I was one of the people, like many people in Hawley, was tired of not being able to get information," he said. "And I saw that we have the tools available to us to consolidate information."
He started the "Hawley Voice," an online news source for the town in 2010. After closing down in January, the "Stamford American" came to him, saying they were interested in creating a paper for Hawley.
"Hawley news just got to be so much that we decided it was time to give Hawley its own section," said publisher and owner Callie Melter-Smith. "And so we launched the Hawley paper three weeks ago."
And so far, the paper has been a success.
"Everybody was really happy and real receptive. Our first week, we sold out papers and i had to ask to ask for more. And this has happened two weeks in a row now. And we can't keep them in stock," said Jason, who is the the Hawley editor.
Though the history of Hawley newspapers is thin and not very promising, Jason says it was necessary for the growing community.
"it's personal. It's a personal feel. Hawley can claim something. It needs its own paper to talk about its own things," he explained.
Because a community paper belongs to the community.
"The community owns it. Those people hold me accountable to my paper," said Callie. "I may say that I own it, but really the town owns it. It's their paper."
The "Hawley American" is a weekly paper, and is published every Friday.
