While every day is Local News Day at The Swellesley Report headquarters, a coalition of journalists, nonprofit leaders, and media innovators in Wellesley and far beyond have united to promote April 9, 2026 as the official Local News Day.
The goal is to reconnect people to trusted local outlets, empower newsrooms to grow, and spark a national movement that sustains local news for generations in a world that’s become used to getting its news for free.
We’ve been publishing Swellesley in Wellesley for more than 20 years now, and have appreciated all of the community support we’ve had along the way, from news tips (not just press releases…) to photos to contributed articles. Send ’em here: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
This is our actual job. Believe us, we don’t plow through more than 12 hours of recent Annual Town Meeting proceedings entirely for the fun of it. (And what the heck are those “cost-of-living adjustments” they were talking about at Town Meeting anyway? We don’t see any of those doing what we do…)
Reader support: The financial support of readers—who since last year have been able to make tax-deductible donations thanks to our partnership with the non-profit Tiny News Collective. Donations have been career sustaining for this self-employed couple. Your contributions help us to cover costs for the glamorous stuff—web hosting, newsletter software, tech support—that enables us to do our jobs. Contributions even make a dent in our health care premiums, which have risen some 80% this year.
Advertising support: So have all the sponsorships from local businesses and non-profit organizations who advertise on our site and in our email newsletter. Their support allows us to provide the news stories we report on for free—no paywall here.
We also are thankful for state agencies (MassDOT) and town departments and bodies (Celebrations Committee, Climate Action Committee, Health Department, Natural Resources Commission, etc.) that support us by paying for legal notices and promotions. As you may or may not know, municipal governments are required by outdated state law to post their paid legal notices in “print” newspapers even though the information would reach many more people through online sites like ours. Some state reps, including Wellesley Rep. Alice Hanlon Peisch, are working to change this.
Grants: New for us over the past year as well have been grants from organizations such as the Wellesley Cultural Council, Needham Bank, Truly’s, and The Village Bank. These allow us to pay stipends to student interns. We’re thankful to organizations that recognize not only non-profits are providing valuable community services, and that organizations like ours amplify what many non-profits do.
Education: We also thank Boston University and its BU Newsroom for partnering with us. This semester we have three students who as part of a journalism class have been writing for Swellesley. We’ve been in this program since last spring, and also have begun partnering with Wellesley College journalists.
Our peers: We find great cooperation among our peers running news operations in communities such as Boston, Brookline, Needham, Newton, and Lincoln. We learn from them, and vice-versa.
Please consider supporting Swellesley with a tax-deductible donation by scanning the QR code or by clicking on it.
