Thursday, February 18, 2010

New weekly newspaper opens in E-town

A new weekly newspaper called The Elizabethtown Advocate has opened its doors and has begun covering local news and sports.

Dan Robrish, a veteran of The Associated Press in Philadelphia, left his job there and began publishing the independent weekly paper three weeks ago. In talking with him after tonight's Borough Council meeting, he said that he has always had a goal and a desire to own and operate his own newspaper, and after working the night shift for years in Philadelphia -- a shift that Dan said is frequently filled with depressing news -- he decided to forge ahead with his plan.

So far, the paper has been six pages of solid local news that one would expect in a weekly newspaper, including great photos of local sports, well written news coverage of this month's snow storms and a locally written editorial each week. I was pleased to see a letter to the editor in this week's edition, an indication that people are picking up copies, subscribing and reading.

I was pleased to see in last week's paper some photos from my former colleague Anne Deimler, whom I worked with at the Hershey Chronicle in the late '90s. Readers of the former Elizabethtown Chronicle (disclosure: I was the editor of the E-town Chronicle about 10 years ago) will recognize the byline of Chris McCarthy, the editor when the Chronicle was closed last year, who Dan said will be covering some high school sports.

All of us on Borough Council are thrilled to have a locally published newspaper once again. This development won't impact Chronicling Elizabethtown because I think this blog will continue to fulfill a need in the community to spread the word about borough news.

Especially during the recent snowstorms, I can use the blog to communicate important announcements quickly so please continue check here regularly.

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