By Meredith McCulloch
Bedford’s local experiment in citizen journalism will celebrate its second anniversary as The Bedford Citizen publishes its 104th weekly summary on Sunday, June 29. Run completely by volunteers, The Citizen began its experiment in community-supported news in June 2012 and has been running strong ever since.
The Citizen’s mission is two-fold: to report on town government through articles about town boards, committees and other official meetings; and to facilitate community connections by reporting on local groups, individuals and businesses. Our overall hope is to make both government participation and entry into the rich life of the Bedford community accessible to all residents, old and new. We are strictly nonpartisan and focused on Bedford, its community and residents.
The project was begun by founders Kim Siebert MacPhail, Meredith McCulloch and Julie Turner, along with a Board of Directors recruited from the community. Siebert MacPhail served as chief reporter though October 2013, setting a high standard for accuracy and clear writing to which the Citizen continues to aspire.
The Citizen is available free of charge, and so far has met its basis expenses thanks to the generosity of a few board members and friends. The Executive committee is actively developing an operating plan that will allow the Bedford Citizen to move forward with sufficient human and financial resources to sustain the newspaper.
Readers can find The Bedford Citizen at bedfordcitizen.wpengine.com; on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/TheBedfordCitizen; and via our Twitter account, @Bedford_Citizen. A free email subscription will deliver a summary of the week’s post every Sunday morning at 7:30 am, or in an email at the close of each day when new stories are posted. Let us know you’d like one, the other, or both in an email to [email protected].
Bedford events are posted in our On the Horizon/Save the Date calendar, available 24/7 on The Citizen’s website. Upcoming events for the week are mentioned in each Sunday Summary email.
Writers wishing to join us are invited to send a note about their interest along with contact information to [email protected]. The range of topics to be covered is wide and assignments are often tailored to the interest of the reporter.
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Happy birthday, Bedford Citizen! It was an honor and a pleasure to be one of the founding members of this bold experiment and it’s exciting to see more writers take part to keep the “paper” strong.