Behind the Business: South Shore Times

When I was in high school, I fell in love with journalism. A documentary filmmaker named Kevin McKiernan visited one of my classes and spoke about his experiences reporting from Kurdistan. That moment completely changed my perspective.

I went on to attend Northeastern University and essentially begged The Patriot Ledger to let me freelance. The editor finally agreed and sent me to cover a science fair. After that first assignment, I was hooked.

At the time, the newsroom at The Patriot Ledger was large, vibrant, and full of talented reporters and editors. I learned a tremendous amount from those journalists. But by the time I graduated, the industry had already begun to change. Newsrooms were shrinking and many of those traditional reporting opportunities were disappearing.

Years later, while raising a family on the South Shore and paying close attention to schools, local government, and civic life, I realized there was a major information gap. The trusted local voices people once relied on had largely disappeared. There was a real need for independent, fact-based local reporting.

That became the foundation for the South Shore Times. We wanted to build something rooted in trusted journalism, focused entirely on local communities and the stories that matter most to residents.

Honestly, it has been an absolute blast.

What became clear very quickly is that this was something the market and these communities genuinely wanted. Our readership has grown incredibly fast. Right now, our content generates roughly 260,000 to 270,000 views per month, and those numbers continue to climb steadily.

What has meant the most to me personally is the response from readers. People stop me in public to thank us. We receive emails, handwritten notes, and messages from residents who appreciate having a trusted local news source again.

At the same time, journalism is about shining light on issues, and sometimes that means covering uncomfortable topics. Not everyone likes that. We certainly receive criticism from time to time, but that comes with the territory. Overall, though, the overwhelming majority of feedback has been positive and constructive. People are engaging with the reporting and participating in conversations about their communities.

No. I also own a public relations agency that I launched after spending years working in larger agencies.

The two businesses are very different, although both revolve around storytelling. With the PR agency, much of our work focuses on helping organizations communicate more effectively and tell their stories clearly. Most of that work is national in scope.

Running two businesses is certainly demanding, but it is also incredibly rewarding. Entrepreneurship on the South Shore teaches you a lot about people, community, and resilience.

The key is that they operate as completely separate businesses.

Most of the stories the South Shore Times covers involve local government, school committees, town meetings, and municipal issues. Those are not areas we represent through my agency. We also do not work on political campaigns or partisan advocacy.

There are clear boundaries between the two organizations. If there is ever a situation where transparency is necessary, we disclose it openly and directly. It's a lot like John Henry owning both the Boston Globe and the Red Sox. That ownership certainly isn't benefiting their coverage this season!

The bigger challenge is honestly time management. I care deeply about both organizations, and balancing the demands of each requires discipline and focus.

I genuinely love local government reporting, especially stories involving municipal budgets and finance.

I can completely nerd out over topics like bond anticipation notes, district improvement financing, and how local governments structure budgets. Municipal finance is fascinating because towns and cities operate very differently from private businesses. The systems are unique, and in communities across the South Shore, residents are deeply engaged in those decisions.

What makes local reporting especially important is that all of our stories begin with public meetings and publicly available information. We are not chasing gossip or speculation. We start with what is happening in open government meetings and what is being discussed publicly.

For many people, town meetings and committee meetings are difficult to attend. Our role is to help residents stay informed and continue participating in civic life, even if they cannot physically be in the room.

No. I get asked this all the time.

There are definitely nights when I am listening to a late-night Select Board meeting and wish AI could simply write the story for me, but the reality is that it cannot. At least not in the way that I would be comfortable putting our brand on it.

Every story published by the South Shore Times is written and edited by humans. That includes our editors, freelancers, student contributors, and our team overall, most of whom live on the South Shore.

AI can be a useful support tool. We use it for things like transcription, organizing notes, and helping summarize information internally. But AI is not capable of being a real reporter. Journalism requires judgment. It requires asking follow-up questions, recognizing when information is missing, and understanding context.

AI only does what you tell it to do. It cannot independently recognize the nuance or significance of a story the way an experienced journalist can.

I love this question. There are so many sources of information out there on the South Shore right now, that it's certainly worth thinking about what counts as quality journalism.

I see a steady cadence of blogs that claim to be journalism, but in reality they are just designed to advance an agenda. They're pretty easy to spot because they are usually paired with name-calling and some other form of advocacy, like petitions or calls to action. Those have their place in the world, but they're not us, and they are not local news.

Like I said before, we want to advance civic discourse. On the government front, all of our coverage is based on or rooted in publicly-accessible documents and meetings. When I look at one of our stories, it needs to be void of the writer's opinion and needs to serve as something that is informing the public.

Beyond that, we do follow the ethical and quality guidelines set by organizations we are part of or work with, like Local Independent Online Publishers and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Spring is always an incredibly busy season for local journalism. Across the South Shore, communities are dealing with town meetings, school budgets, elections, graduations, and playoff sports.

But beyond the day-to-day coverage, what excites me most is continuing to tell stories that connect our communities.

One of the reasons we built the South Shore Times as a regional publication rather than a town-by-town outlet is because that reflects how people actually live. Residents move between communities constantly for work, sports, schools, and everyday life.

I am most excited about uncovering the common threads that tie these communities together and telling stories that reflect the broader identity of the South Shore.

Oh, there is no way I am taking that bait! When we launched, I promised readers they would never see my opinion on this site. I'm not starting now!

What I will say is that I'm a life-long South Shore resident, and it's been thrilling to see the culinary scene move south from Boston over the years. The experiences you can have on the South Shore really rival anywhere else.

Do I have favorites? Sure. But I'm keeping them to myself.