CAPE COD – Cape Cod Wave Magazine is 6 years old! So yes, we are having cake for breakfast. We’re 6, after all.
But on this, our 6th birthday, as the sugar wears off, we are reflective.
Six years ago, thinking that local journalism matters and should matter, we launched this online magazine. And in those six years, the local media landscape has changed significantly. From the sidelines, we have followed along.
Most of the local news in this industry has been sad. There have been layoffs, downsizing. Some who have lost their jobs have been people we know. The editing copy desk at the Cape Cod Times literally moved to Texas.
Long ago, in other lives with other Cape Cod media companies, we were journalists who covered government meetings and were part of a large group of seasoned Cape Cod journalists who kept a record of the public actions of public officials.
Local matters. Nothing is more important than local information.
We know the importance of that work. When we started Cape Cod Wave, we wanted to do something just as important, but different.
But now, often, there are no journalists at public meetings. And those that do attend are probably overworked, and certainly underpaid for the value that they actually bring to the communities of Cape Cod.
We understand why. Business is business – both to those running a media company and to those looking to use those companies for marketing. Two big online corporations (one beginning with the letter “F” and the other with the letter “G”), have taken over the media world… and not for the best.
In this environment, there has been carnage. Whether you know it or not, you as a citizen have been hurt.
Journalism matters. When we launched Cape Cod Wave with the words, “Morning in America starts here,” we were trying to fill a niche. We think we have succeeded in carving out our little place in the Cape Cod media landscape.
Hopefully, you have seen that we do important work with our longform stories – profiles of Cape Cod personalities and deep digs into important issues.
But we are a small staff. We do what we do. And we believe that local journalism matters. Not just our journalism, but the work that all Cape Cod local journalists do.
So for our birthday, we are asking you to do something special for us: support our competitors. They aren’t really our competitors. Telling the truth about something is not a competition. It is a calling.
There are a lot of local companies on Cape Cod preaching the gospel of “local” from every harbor and hilltop, and Cape Cod also has no shortage of public personalities evangelizing about the importance of “local.”
Local matters. Nothing is more important than local information.
And so as the greatest summer ever on Cape Cod is approaching, on our 6th birthday as a gift to us, we are asking you to buy a newspaper.
If you’d consider supporting Cape Cod Wave as well, we would of course appreciate it.
Journalism matters. And the truth is, your support matters. If you care about local, you really should care about local journalism.
And yes, this is a “local” statement made on Cape Cod.
We’re 6 now. We speak our mind.
- Laura & Brian
