How do you close a local newspaper?

Parting is bittersweet

December 19, 2024 at 2:25 a.m.

A parting shot of the current staff of the Westmore News in the newspaper’s office at 327 Irving Ave. From left, editorial assistant Marian Kromberg, office manager Angie Brescia, publisher Richard Abel, editor Jananne Abel, assistant editor Sarah Wolpoff and reporter David Tapia. The sign above the staff’s heads is lettering that was removed from the front window of the original Westmore News offices at 38 Broad St. before the façade was renovated.

It’s the end of an era—and a particularly happy one. Richard and I have grown up and grown old in the last 40 years while running the Westmore News. We’ve learned so much and met so many wonderful people along the way. And there’s never been a dull moment because what we do is so fascinating.

Retiring from this business and closing a local institution is among the hardest decisions we have ever had to make, heart-wrenching, to be sure, but as our older daughter said to me: it’s time to write a new chapter, to do something else in our lives. Whether that includes travel, running for office, joining organizations, visiting our two daughters, son-in-law and grandson in California or whatever, we will have the time to do it without being confined to four or five days between papers.

We’re not moving out of town, which is going to make the transition harder, and I hope we’ll be accepted as ordinary residents and no longer owners of the only newspaper in town. My friend who has been retired for several years already said you should take six months to figure out what you’re going to do next—but I plan to somehow incorporate serving the community I have come to love after 40 years.

When I first joined Richard at the paper in 1984, we slowly transformed the Westmore News from the alternative publication his father, Bernard, had started in 1964 into a mainstream organ that would appeal to all Rye Town residents. Neither of us had a journalism background, but I always loved to write and was a stickler for good grammar, a trait I have maintained to this day. Some of my more memorable editorials have been about “stationery” being spelled wrong on signs at local stores (who remembers Dada’s Stationary?) and critiquing the many press releases I regularly received where “its” was spelled wrong. We learned as we went along from a variety of sources and mainly from the New York Press Association and owners and staff of its member papers. We vividly remember the first time we won 11 awards in the NYPA’s Better Newspaper Contest. That was a milestone, and we realized we were on the right path.

Through the years we have had many great reporters and some not so good. The latter didn’t last long. Those reporters and other employees who stayed any length of time became not just employees but friends. Our children grew up spending a great deal of time in our office (they complain about it to this day) and learned about selling ads from our advertising manager, Elaine Lesta, who retired after 30 years. Two of our employees, Angie Brescia and Marian Kromberg, have been with us more than 20 years. We consider everyone on our staff today, including assistant editor Sarah Wolpoff and reporter David Tapia, to be friends, and we thank them for their hard work and dedication. Believe me, it has been appreciated.

I have also enjoyed working with numerous freelancers over the years, including many Blind Brook High School students. I know some have covered sports largely to be able to cite that their writing had been published on their college applications, but others have been passionate about their role and their writing improved immensely over time. At least one freelancer became a reporter for a nationally recognized daily newspaper.

There have also been many freelance photographers whose work has embellished our pages over the decades. We specifically want to thank Joseph DeCarlo, who has been taking pictures for us on and off since he was a freshman at Port Chester High School and has now graduated from college. It’s been gratifying to see how his work has improved in those years, and now every photo he submits is a work of art.

We have loved our jobs editing and publishing the newspaper that has served as the voice of the community, a source of local information, especially about candidates for school, village and town boards, a watchdog of local politicians, and a place where readers and columnists could express their opinions. Holding and writing up our lively in-house debates among candidates for office over the years has been time-consuming but ultimately rewarding, and I hope it has been valuable to voters.

We are proud of the journalistic work—both writing and photography—we have been able to produce during the last 40 years and particularly in the last decade—telling the stories of local people and groups, covering longstanding and new community events, writing about and critiquing the development that is changing the face of Port Chester, storms that have had a huge impact on Rye Brook and Port Chester residents and infrastructure and what is being done to curb flooding in the future and shedding a light on wrongdoing where we see it.

There is no more important work than journalism—and local journalism especially. So, while I had no intention of going into this field when I graduated from college—I was going to be a French teacher—it has been a most rewarding experience. We have many concerns about how freedom of the press may be threatened during the upcoming Trump administration.

We wish we could continue our roles as newspaper editor and publisher forever, but the need to do other things in our lives before we die is calling. We’ll miss covering the March election in Port Chester and are already getting the scoop on who might be running for mayor and trustee. While we’re still fans of and fascinated by cumulative voting, there is a concern that the interest in running has dwindled since this system of voting was instituted in 2010. There were 13 candidates for six seats that year while only seven for six seats in 2022.

We will especially miss our office conversations about the people, places and issues that make Port Chester and Rye Brook tick.

Besides the many emails and phone calls, we have had personal visits and conversations with several people who have expressed their sadness and wishes to do something to keep the paper going. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response from the community.

“Say it ain’t so” is an often-heard lament.

Some have related what the paper has meant to them and their family over the years, how they have saved clippings of sporting and other important events in their lives the Westmore News has captured.

It’s amazing to hear that Howard Rubin, for instance, has been reading the paper regularly since 1968. Which overshadows the note from Danielle McFadden who said she has loved getting the Westmore News for the last 26 years. Tara Orlando sent me a photo of the clipping she has featuring a picture of her 2-year-old son tacked up above her desk at Rye Brook Village Hall, and he is now 20.

Rubin has been getting the paper in Florida for years, and we’ve heard from others who now make their home in North Carolina but have wanted to keep tabs on their hometown by subscribing to the Westmore News.

So, despite a few critics, I guess we have been doing something right.