Local News is Back!

Welcome to The Bramanville Tribune, Millbury's home-grown source for news and commentary about all things local. Things will be up and running here at full speed shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published!

So what is this thing?

The Bramanville Tribune is an online news publication on the Ghost platform. It's the news and event information for the Town of Millbury you're looking for in a centralized place. The Founding Editors are Jeff Raymond and Chris Naff, with support from local residents and beyond.

How is this different from the local newspaper?

A few ways:

1) The people behind this are from the area. We're not owned by a large newspaper conglomerate, we're not cycling through editors every six months, and we might even answer our emails once in a while.

2) We're focused on the local experience.  Living in a small historic town on the move is unique, and we want to give it the treatment it deserves. At the same time, the relative news desert at present means that the growth Millbury is experiencing gets short thrift, and a digital publication allows us to move quickly on issues of importance to the community.

3) We're invested in this town. We're all in. That means that we want to know what you're up to, what your local groups are doing, whether the Woolies win, about how the band took home the gold at the regional competition. Or maybe you just did something cool and want to tell people about it - the sky is the limit.

Long and short, without the constraints of print (and without the additional overhead), we can focus on the stuff that matters: what's happening in town, and what you need to know to stay informed.

What do you plan to cover?

Everything.

More seriously, the only limit we have is time. In a perfect world, we can cover every board and committee meeting, every sporting event, every major occurrence. In reality, we're going to need some help to achieve the goal of covering everything people might care about, but we'll get there as we ramp up.

With that said, in the short term, you can expect to see:

• Coverage of major meetings (Board of Selectmen, Planning Board, etc.)
• School sports results and arts activity
• Regular commentary from Jeff Raymond, Chris Naff, and other writers
• A community calendar (hopefully every Friday with meetings, occasions, and other happenings to help plan your week)
• Local interest stories (information about new businesses in town, interviews with town officials, noteworthy events and milestones, history breaks, etc.)
• Your letters (Email us!)

In the longer term, we're considering:

• Podcast/Video content
• Regional information with local impacts
• Guest content

Long and short, if it's Millbury, it matters.

Who are the people behind this?

To start:

• Jeff Raymond, a former columnist at the once-local newspaper. He most recently spent close to five years writing his observations for Millbury and Sutton. Jeff has lived nearly 40 years in Millbury, with no plans to leave.
• Chris Naff, a current Selectman, has spent his time in office focusing of issues of economic development, zoning, and tax reform. He loves spending his time supporting the local businesses of Millbury, and, when he's not around town, you can find him at a river, fishing for trout that he rarely catches.

As things ramp up, we intend to bring some writers to cover local events and give it some additional flavor (and pay them to do so!). Want to help? Email us.

I have [an event|a library program|a senior center announcement|a grant opportunity], how do I get that in the paper?

Email us. Non-profit organizations and municipal organizations can get their information listed on what will be a weekly community calendar free of charge. If you're an individual or a for-profit organization, let us know and we can work something out.

This sounds great. Can I advertise my business with you guys?

Yes, please! Email us and we can work out the details.

How can I subscribe?

For now, most content will be free. By signing up as a subscriber, new articles will ship directly to your email inbox on a semi-daily basis in the morning.

Soon, we will introduce a subscription option that will provide some additional content of interest. More to come on that.

What's important to know? Any subscription fees (or advertising) goes right back into this project to pay freelancers and make this work. Your money stays in town, not to fund a faceless media CEO's $7.74 million compensation package or a New Jersey information technology platform.

Is there a print edition?

Never say never, but there are no plans for a print edition. The economics surrounding a print run do not make a physical startup newspaper viable.

You are a bunch of [woke socialists|fascist loons] who want to [insert horrible example here]! Why should we trust you?

The Bramanville Tribune is not neutral. The Bramanville Tribune, instead, is pro-Millbury. We want to see this town succeed, we want this to be a great place to live and work and raise a family, and we want this news source to reflect that reality.

This means that there may be a lot of positive stories about the town, but it also means shining a light on the less savory parts. It means you might not like what we uncover, it may mean you don't like the perspective in our commentary, it means you might disagree with the analysis.

Long and short, we're going to do our best to get it right because we love this place.

Favorite pizza?

Jeff: Bacon and cheese from American Pie
Chris: Didn't give Jeff an answer, which probably means pineapple.

Let's have some fun.