The T&G remains the Central Massachusetts paper of record. Since Michael McDermott started as executive editor in 2022, the T&G has started to get its groove back.
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Journalists are a competitive bunch. We love to beat rival media publications in reporting breaking news and investigative articles. Reporters, myself included, will happily brag about scooping the competition, even if we published a story mere minutes before anyone else, before the majority of our audiences even know about the news.
Before I came to WBJ, I was a reporter for Hartford Business Journal, where scooping the paper of record – the Hartford Courant – on business news was a constant source of pride. When I started as WBJ editor in 2015, one of my priorities was to beat the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on as many business stories as possible. The T&G still had multiple business reporters at that point, so as WBJ’s wins piled up, I grew more and more gleeful.
Eventually, though, my joy would turn to sadness. Round after round of layoffs and resignations left fewer reporters in the T&G newsroom, and often WBJ was the only publication reporting on significant business news. When the City of Worcester announced plans to build a $160-million public baseball stadium, which is the City’s most ambitious economic development project in the last 15 years, the T&G eschewed the traditional media role of offering insights and holding power to account in favor of more friendly coverage, like stories on the installation of the stadium’s grass. The T&G was a shell of its former self.
Yet, the T&G remains the Central Massachusetts paper of record. Since Michael McDermott started as executive editor in 2022, the T&G has started to get its groove back, reporting on topics important to the community, hustling on breaking news, and re-asserting its role in holding power to account. I’m not necessarily happy the T&G is beating WBJ to the occasional business story, but it’s nice being in a competitive media market again.
In the May 13 print edition, WBJ Correspondent Katherine Hamilton in her two-part “The new Worcester media” series reports on how over the past 10 years, the T&G went from the dominant player in Central Massachusetts media to being the largest player in a fragmented industry. The T&G will never be what it once was, but I’m glad WBJ is competing with it again. The competition benefits the economy and the community.
