South County, North East Independent Papers to Merge

Beginning Oct. 1, readers of the South County Independent and the North East Independent will find their local news bundled together in one newspaper named The Independent.

Independent Newspapers Managing Editor Liz Boardman said in an editor’s note Thursday that the change is to better serve readers and advertisers by “offering a bigger, more robust paper.”

The change also means the paper won’t be focusing on East Greenwich and instead, the paper will cover just Narragansett, South Kingstown and North Kingstown.

“Since the founding of North East Independent 17 years ago, we have had limited market penetration in East Greenwich, and believe this change will better deploy our resources so that we can remain the award-winning, go-to, investigative newspaper our readers and advertisers deserve,” Boardman wrote.

The two papers have won numerous awards over the years, primarily for consistently strong reporting on local issues. And the papers have shown that local newspapers still are relevant in today’s increasingly digital news environment. Just last week, a story broken by the South County Independent about former House Rep. Donald J. Lally Jr. taking a state job just a few months after resigning his seat caught the attention of nearly every news organization in the state, and for good reason. That story dominated the news cycle and it would not have been news at all if it weren’t for Lally’s hometown newspaper finding and reporting the scoop first.

Boardman indicated that the papers’ website will remain unchanged, but a new Facebook group will be created to for the entire coverage area.

Editor’s disclosure: Mark Schieldrop is a former employee of the South County Independent.