By Jack Walsh
The Chelsea Record, one of the oldest newspapers in Massachusetts, provides its community with stories about the needs and interests of its residents, ranging from the school budget to zoning and development to city council meetings — and even the Boston Bruins on occasion. The paper has proven that it’s here to stay.
The Record has been in business for nearly 150 years and is now part of the Independent Newspaper Group, a Revere-based publishing company that owns 12 local papers. According to ING president and majority shareholder Stephen Quigley, the paper is a beacon for how local news should be handled.
“The Chelsea Record is the nuts and bolts of what a newspaper always was,” he said. “It records the high school sports, the obituaries, the local commission meetings, elected offices, youth sports, high school reunions.”
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The paper was launched in the 1870s, becoming a daily in 1890. That lasted for a century, until 1990, when it began publishing just twice a week. This changed yet again, however, when the company became part of the Independent Newspaper Group in 2000. It’s now a Thursday weekly.
Quigley has been part of the paper for nearly 50 years, saying, “My father bought the Chelsea Record in 1976, and we sold it in 1988. And then I bought it back in 2000. So, we have a long history in Chelsea, as many people do.”
Chelsea is a small, densely populated city on the outskirts of Boston. Its population of about 39,000 is about two-thirds Latinx. Although the city has undergone substantial improvements over the years, 22.5% of its people live in poverty, more than double the state average of 10.4%, according to the U.S Census Bureau.
The Record’s lead reporter, Adam Swift, said he and the Record work hard to positively represent the Latinx community by covering stories that will make them feel supported. He does note the challenge that it presents, however, and thinks that another outlet focused on reporting on the Latinx community could benefit the city.
“It’s definitely a challenge, and I think this city could use outlets beyond just the Chelsea Record,” Swift said. “I think the leadership in the city is very good at being in touch about what their challenges are and what they have going on. I think obviously there’s a challenge reaching down to some of those layers underneath that. So, some of that’s more unique to Chelsea for a paper like the Record than it might be in other areas.”
A voice for the Latinx community
Gladys Vega is the executive director of La Colaborativa, a Latina-led organization focused on empowering immigrants through various programs, educational resources, emergency housing placement, job training and more. A native of Puerto Rico, she praised the Record’s coverage of the Latinx community, a group that she said in previous years received minimal news coverage.
“I actually think that the interpretation [of the Latinx community] and the stuff that they [the Chelsea Record] write about Latinos gives me hope, as many years ago in the past, that wasn’t the case,” she said. “I have other friends that are doing journalism work, they run newspapers and I’m like, OK, is this a friendly magazine promoting nightclubs or is this actually a news report? So I think that with the Chelsea Record, I feel very comfortable.”
Vega said the Record has an “amazing team” and suggested that the paper dedicate a page about positive news concerning Latino residents in Chelsea. “I would love to see some of the Latino writers writing more and for there to be a special page of Latino happiness across the city,” she said. “But I know it’s very, very hard to find good writers.”
The Chelsea Record has a circulation of about 3,300, charging 35 cents per physical copy, with the ability to visit the website and browse through each of its news stories online at no charge. The Record makes most of its income from advertising by local businesses.
Alex Train, Chelsea’s housing and community development director, praises the Record, saying that the paper’s independent ownership, in contrast to the large chains that own many New England papers, is a major benefit.
“From my vantage point and the city’s vantage point, an independently owned local publication like the Chelsea Record is indispensable to the health of the community,” he said. “We’ve witnessed across the region the consolidation of local news outlets, including the corporate acquisition of multiple local papers. It’s resulted in the dilution of coverage, it’s resulted in less of a focus on municipal government, local affairs and the public realm, and quite honestly, it’s also resulted in an enhanced focus on maximizing profit at the expense of journalistic integrity.”
Quigley said that the city hasn’t always been on the “upswing” as it is now, but he and his staff of experienced freelancers are city regulars — some dating back to 40 years ago — and have continued to report on what a local paper should be sharing with the public, which has helped to build its foundation and reliability.
“I think local news is always important. And that’s our job, to just report the news,” Quigley said. “And as you notice, there are some people that just don’t do that. They fabricate, and we’ve seen it on a national scale. As a news person in the business for about 50 years, I just find it reprehensible but, you know, the people would rather go ahead and put profits over the truth.”
Hyperlocal versus regional
The Record’s largest rival is The Boston Globe, one of the country’s leading regional newspapers. But Quigley believes that the Record has certain advantages over the Globe, whose focus is on Eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island rather than on any one individual community.
“They do a good job,” Quigley said of the Globe. “They have a couple of reporters that have been around for a few years, and they do a competent job reporting the news. The big thing we have going for us is that we’re weekly. We come out once a week. People who don’t want to buy a daily newspaper go off our newspaper, and that’s how they get the story.”
Swift, like Quigley, believes that he and other hyperlocal news reporters have an advantage over larger-scale news outlets in Greater Boston when it comes to Chelsea-based coverage, as they report on much of what the city’s residents are interested in.
“The one thing the Chelsea Record and other papers like it do, is, we’re there for pretty much every meeting from city council and school committee to the building board, so we really get a feel for what’s going on in the city before things happen,” Swift said. “We’re keeping track of the development and the new businesses and things like that, that the bigger papers aren’t keeping an eye on.”
Alex Train appreciates all of the reporting that the Record provides for its community, saying that his own work likely wouldn’t receive coverage if it wasn’t for Quigley and his staff.
“I think without the Chelsea Record, we wouldn’t have coverage of each city council meeting, we wouldn’t be able to disseminate information effectively to residents about planning and projects, including infrastructure projects, open space projects as well as housing and economic resources,” Train said.
Quigley and his colleagues continue to bring local stories to light with the hopes of making Chelsea better for all of its residents, partnering with city-wide organizations and setting an example for independently owned papers throughout New England.
“Because they’re still independently owned, we’ve been able to benefit greatly from that hyperlocal focus, and it allows us to promote transparency, so residents know how their tax dollars are being spent and are aware of governmental operations,” said Train. “And then it also allows us to highlight the resources and initiatives that are important to residents.”
Jack Walsh is a graduate student in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University. His newsletter on community journalism, Local News Matters, can be found at jackwalsh.substack.com.
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