Mike Rosenberg, longtime Bedford resident and former local public servant, has joined the staff of The Bedford Citizen as its first Community Reporter. “We are thrilled to bring Mike’s expertise as a journalist and his perspective as a person who has loved and supported Bedford for many years to The Citizen. He will be a great asset in helping us realize our mission to inform our readers and encourage citizen participation. Mike has lived that mission in his many contributions to our town,” said Teri Morrow, President and Publisher of The Bedford Citizen.
Managing Editor Julie Turner added: “Mike’s perspective as a journalist is an important key to The Bedford Citizen’s growth. His story instincts are superb and his ability to quickly develop articles for publication is crucial to delivering a quality product to our readers.”
Rosenberg’s career in journalism began in high school when he started covering sports for the local paper The Rutland Herald in his Vermont hometown. He continued working for the paper through college on a part-time basis, covering a variety of “beats” from sports to the state legislature to gubernatorial races. “It was a great opportunity for me. I thought I wanted to be a sportswriter and while I did cover sports, my editor and mentor at The Herald convinced me that the way forward for a budding journalist was news, not sports.”
Rosenberg moved here in 1973 and began working as editor of The Tufts Criterion and also working as a stringer for The Bedford Minuteman. At the time, Carol Amick, also a Bedford resident, was the editor but had decided to run for office as a state senator. Amick won and Rosenberg succeeded her as editor – and was The Minuteman’s only employee for the next three years. In 1978 he became editor of the news group’s flagship paper, The Lexington Minuteman, and was named Executive Editor of the entire group in 1979. Three years later he moved to The Lowell Sun as Metro Editor where he worked for the next five years.
“In August 1987 I made a big career change and accepted a non-academic position at Maimonides School in Brookline. I am still there today, working as Director of Alumni Relations.”
But his journalism roots ran deep and between 1996 and 2007 he wrote a weekly column of general local interest for The Minute Man. He also covered Bedford High School football for more than 30 years.
Along with this busy career, Rosenberg began raising a family with his wife, Dawn. They have two daughters, Rebecca (now Newall) who is an assistant dean of students at Middlesex Community College, and Sarah, who is the proprietor of Wicked Good Media, LLC. He also managed to find time to serve three terms on the Bedford School Committee and four terms on the Select Board. His last term expired in March of this year. He has been president of the Bedford Athletic Association and Bedford Dollar for Scholars. He is currently on the board of Bedford Embraces Diversity and the Lowell Festival Foundation and is also a Corporator for Emerson Hospital. He served for a brief period (April-August 2020) on the board of directors of The Bedford Citizen but resigned when he became a candidate for the position of community reporter. Rosenberg was recognized as Bedford’s Citizen of the Year in 1994.
Rosenberg has been in touch with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission regarding possible conflicts of interest in his new role with The Citizen. He has been advised that for a period of one year he cannot cover issues with which he was highly involved while in office. The Bedford Citizen supports and respects the guidelines of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission and has long held all its contributors to a high standard of non-partisanship and objectivity and will continue to do so.
“On behalf of everyone at The Citizen, I extend Mike a warm welcome,” said Teri Morrow. “Bringing the resources of a skilled and experienced reporter like him to our staff is a huge step up and will enable us to provide expanded coverage of the town to our readers. These opportunities for growth and sustainability are a direct result of the financial confirmation we receive from our donors and as always, we are grateful for their continued support.”
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