Dear Readers,

Jeff Sullivan from The Bulletin and The Norwood Record here. Many of you have seen me at your meetings, events, parades, and probably at least one zoning hearing that went three hours past bedtime.

For the past 11 years, I’ve covered just about everything in Boston and Norwood — from neighborhood associations to the federal courts, from space savers to bike lanes — We’ve been there.

I’m writing today with news, bittersweet, but mostly sweet. After decades of service to this community, Paul and Dennis, the founders of these papers, are retiring. They built a strong foundation for local journalism, and I’m grateful for every opportunity they’ve given me as a reporter. Together we’ve weathered a lot, 115 inches of snow in 2015 to a pandemic in 2020, and still kept the paper printing each week. That’s a testament to this community.

So… is this a goodbye letter? Nope. It’s just the beginning. My wife and I have decided to purchase the paper from Paul and Dennis and take on ownership duties. I’ll still be reporting – for the foreseeable future – and our commitment to local, fact-based news will stay firmly in place.

We’re proud to carry forward the tradition Paul and Dennis started back in 1992 (I was 6 – Tommy is still my favorite Power Ranger by the way).

If you haven’t read Paul and Dennis’ goodbye letter to the left, well, I don’t know what to tell you, except go read that. All good? Okay. We completely agree with everything they said regarding ethical local reporting and the need for independent community journalism.

We want to recommit to continue Paul and Dennis’ legacy into another 33 years. Hopefully.

But we also wanted to give you a heads-up about a few updates coming soon.

What’s Staying the Same:

The paper will remain free. Print and PDF editions will continue. Every story will be written by humans, for humans. No AI-written news – ever.

What’s Changing: We’re bringing our online presence into the 21st century with a more accessible, reader-friendly website. Our archive will be easier to browse. You’ll see more from us on social media, and perhaps a newsletter or two. We believe local news should be easy to find, easy to read, and rooted in the community it serves, without mining your data or burying you in clickbait.

And finally:

Thank you. Readers really do make a newspaper. Without you, this would just be fish-and-chips wrapping paper getting blown around by dust devils through an empty street. So thank you for opening the paper each week, for emailing story tips, for saying hello at local events, for holding us to account, for being interesting people to write about, for being there if we have a question, for answering when I call after business hours, and, most importantly, for caring about your neighborhood.

We wouldn’t ever have been here otherwise.

We’ll see you next week.

Warm regards,

Jeff Sullivan

Editor-in-Chief & Publisher

The Boston Bulletin & The Norwood Record