The closure of the Norwood News has prompted former staff and readers to rally for the return of the longtime community newspaper, which served the Northwest Bronx for nearly four decades.
A petition circulating to save the paper has garnered more than 700 signatures. Organized by former staff, it seeks to revive the publication and demonstrate its value to its owner, Montefiore Einstein Medical Center, as well as potential funders or buyers.
“I was hoping to get Montefiore’s attention to let them see that this is a mistake and the community needs the paper,” said petition organizer David Greene, photojournalist and delivery driver for Norwood News.
“A lot of people have said they got no more voice,” Greene said, adding that people continue to contact him with story tips.
Daniela Beasley, director of Mosholu Preservation Corporation, Montefiore Medical Center’s community affiliate, said the decision came after years of efforts to keep the publication going in the final issue in August.
“After years of working to sustain the publication, we have reached a point where an indefinite hiatus is necessary,” Beasley said in the last issue.
“Keeping a small community newspaper alive is no small undertaking. Every edition represents hours of reporting, editing, designing, photographing, coordinating, printing and distributing, often accomplished by a small number of people who care deeply about the work and the community behind it,” she said.
Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, the community arm of Montefiore Health System, the Norwood News began as a monthly newspaper before transitioning to a biweekly publication. Its coverage eventually expanded beyond Norwood to neighboring West Bronx communities in Community Board 7 and broader boroughwide issues.
Over the years, the paper covered a wide range of issues, from crime and housing to arts and culture, local elections and community events.
Its reporting included major neighborhood issues such as the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory, notorious landlord Frank Palazzolo and the 2023 fentanyl poisoning of 1-year old Nicholas Feliz Dominici. The publication also received numerous journalism awards.
Síle Moloney joined the Norwood News as an intern in 2019 and eventually became its editor-in-chief. Moloney said she was shocked by the closure after she and the remaining staff had worked to keep the paper running with limited resources.
Moloney said that online readership doubled in recent years and reached as many as 120,000 readers during election months.
As staff members and freelancers left and positions went unfilled, Moloney took on additional responsibilities alongside her editing and reporting duties.
She said she was not involved in meetings with Montefiore about the paper but was told that print publication would cease in August, but assumed digital operations would continue and that Montefiore would find another buyer. She was informed on Aug. 20 that Sept. 1 would be her last day.
Greene’s relationship with the paper dates back years before he joined its staff, having his photograph taken by then-Inquiring Photographer Jules Rubinstein outside of a Norwood laundromat.
His first contribution to the paper was a photograph of graffiti on East 207th Street that he had taken before it was painted over.
After spending a few years reporting for the Bronx Times, Greene joined the Norwood News as a freelancer. He later became its inquiring photographer, a role he held for 18 years, while taking on additional responsibilities over time.
“Every few years, there would be some kind of rumor that the paper was going to shut down. However, this year, there was talk that it was going to be sold, which was a little different,” Greene said.
“There was always a rumor, but we always kept going.”
Moloney said the paper’s shrinking staff made it increasingly difficult to pursue longer-term reporting projects.
“There were many, I would say, in-depth stories that we wanted to cover that it was very hard to cover when you’re just literally fighting fires,” she said.
Montefiore, the biggest employer in the Bronx, said it had supported the newspaper for nearly four decades but pointed to financial pressures facing health care systems as the reason it needed to redirect its resources.
“[It] shows the benefit of a local community newspaper to the community. The benefit of local on the ground reporting versus when a TV network comes up when somebody dies,” said Moloney, highlighting that local news outlets embed themselves in the community.
She noted that many important stories were those that served the neighborhood and its residents, celebrating local heroes, highlighting gas and heating outages or trapped pets in burned out buildings.
The closure comes amid broader challenges facing local news outlets in the Bronx and across the country, making News 12 experienced layoffs in July, while the Mott Haven Herald and Hunts Point Express, two student-run publications at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, paused publication in January.
The transition away from printed newspapers and advertising money has resulted in a downward trend in local news funding, as outlets look for new ways to add revenue, either through philanthropy, digital ads, or subscription models.
In neighborhoods such as the ones Norwood News covered with a median household income of $39,053, the loss of local news coverage can be particularly significant in communities where disposable income is limited.
“Montefiore is proud to have supported the Norwood News for nearly four decades, but as financial headwinds continue for healthcare systems like ours, we must direct all our resources to our core mission of delivering world-class care and critical services to those who most depend on us,” a Montefiore spokesperson told the Bronx Times in a statement.
The hospital donated the paper’s print archives to the Bronx Historical Society.
Reach Marina Samuel at msamuel@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
