We adopted the new name because we want it clearly known that we are an independent Cape Cod newspaper, printed and published on the Cape, by Cape Codders, for Cape Codders.News Corp. acquired the Times when it bought
Today's ''Times''
A period of journalistic excellence at The Cape Cod Times was ushered in by some outstanding investigative reporting 20+ years ago. Particularly noteworthy was a 1997 series titled "Broken Trust," written by two Times reporters who spent five months tracking down details of contamination of Cape Cod’s aquifer by extensive underground pollution originating at the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The six-part series caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, which suspended the use of live explosives, propellants, flares, and lead bullets on the military reservation – the first time in American history that the EPA imposed any restrictions on a branch of the U.S. military. In 2007, the Suburban Newspapers of America named the Cape Cod Times "Newspaper of the Year," with the American Press Institute judging the Times to be "one of the country's elite newspapers." The following year (2008), the New England Press Association named the Times "Newspaper of the Year." In 2016, GateHouse Media, the owner of the Times and more than 150 other U.S. dailies, honored executive editor Paul Pronovost as the "Best of GateHouse Editor of the Year." A journalistic pinnacle was reached two years later (in 2018), when the New England Newspaper & Press Association bestowed the Cape Cod Times with 43 awards, including ten first-place citations. Signs of serious trouble at the Times began to appear the next year (in November 2019) when Pronovost resigned as executive editor. He left the newsroom he had called home for 19 years to become the communications director at a small New Hampshire college. In a parting memorandum to his staff, he wrote, "I do feel deep regret for not being able to hold the line on some of my core principles. In many ways, I feel I’ve failed you all and those who are no longer working at 319," the newsroom’s Main Street address. "That’s one of the reasons I know it’s time to move on: I am not able to give you what you need and deserve." Five months later (in April 2020), Gannett’s newsroom purge Pronovost anticipated struck forcefully. Included in that round of cuts was Bill Mills, the opinion page editor who two decades earlier had been one of the investigative reporters who wrote "Broken Trust." Also laid off was Tim Miller, the features editor whose movie reviews had been must-reads for more than a generation of Times readers. His final column, which was published on May 1, 2020, was titled "Dear readers, thanks for a great 36 years." On May 24, 2020, Anne Brennan, the new executive editor, informed readers about another result of Gannett’s budgetary constraints in an article titled "The Cape Cod Times will no longer take editorial positions, endorse politicians." Until then, a daily editorial written jointly by the executive editor, opinion editor, and publisher served as a moral compass for the Cape Cod community. Similarly, senior Times editors had previously vetted candidates for major elected positions on Cape Cod in face-to-face meetings at the Times headquarters. The editors subsequently wrote endorsements of top candidates, reporting their positions on important issues and explaining why the Times thought them meritorious. Those features, which had provided a valuable community service, required editorial resources that were no longer available because of Gannett’s budget cuts. Some readers responded to Brennan’s editorial cutbacks with online comments lamenting the Times’ journalistic decline. One reader wrote an op-ed published in another Cape Cod newspaper headlined "What Has Happened to the Cape Cod Times?" The author of a book chronicling the adverse effects of corporate ownership on community newspapers used the Cape Cod Times as a case study. The Times’ decline has continued as Gannett further restricted the newsroom's budget. The newsroom staff shrank by half over 6 years – from 32 to 15 between 2016 and 2022. Because newsroom resources have become insufficient for thorough and in-depth coverage of the local news, Cape Cod’s only daily newspaper has increasingly become more an aggregator of articles generated elsewhere and less a primary gatherer and reporter of the local news. Opinion pieces previously written by members of the local community have been replaced by points of view expressed by authors in distant places and borrowed from other media. Some familiar columns written by local contributors continue to appear at regular intervals. In June 2022, the Cape Cod Times followed Gannett’s lead regarding opinion pieces and reduced its opinion content still further. Some analysts interpreted Gannett’s position as economically driven because editorial positions sometimes alienate readers. Critics questioned the value of a publication that doesn’t stand for something. The Times now limits publication of letters to the editor and op-ed pieces to the Saturday and Sunday editions. Times movie buffs have missed Tim Miller's previously must-read movie reviews since April 2020, when they disappeared following the newsroom purge in which Gannett laid off Miller, the former features editor. His final column was titled " Dear readers, thanks for a great 36 years." Theater goers currently benefit from excellent theater reviews written by entertainment editor Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll. Images have been an important part of the Times' locally generated content. Photojournalists Ron Schloerb, Steve Heaslop, and Merrily Cassidy are among the paper's longest tenured staff, having been employed for 44, 41, and 14 years, respectively. In March 2022, the Cape Cod Times stopped publishing a print edition on Saturdays, a move that was part of Gannett’s eliminating Saturday print editions at half of the more than 250 daily U.S. newspapers it owned.See also
* List of newspapers in MassachusettsFootnotes
External links
* {{Newspapers in Massachusetts 1936 establishments in Massachusetts Gannett publications Mass media in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Martha's Vineyard Nantucket, Massachusetts Publications established in 1936 Newspapers published in Massachusetts