When Gordon Joseloff started WestportNow in March 2003, it was special.
Few communities had a local, online news site — let alone one written and edited by a professional journalist who had reported from hot spots and major cities all over the world.
When Gordon Joseloff died earlier this month, WestportNow was still special. Over the past 18 years, countless community news sites came and went. But WestportNow was still there.
For over 6,400 days it has provided news, photos, obituaries and more. Features like upcoming teardowns and business openings made it a go-to source for thousands of loyal readers.
At the end of the month though, Westport will lose this unique source. Joseloff’s children, Anna-Liisa Nixon and Ben Joseloff, announced today that at the end of the month, WestportNow will cease publication.
They said:
WestportNow was more than a job to our father. It was the natural culmination of two of his life-long passions: journalism and Westport.
Like many small business owners, he devoted nearly every waking hour to its success. WestportNow would never have had such a remarkable run without the contributions of many talented individuals, but Gordon Joseloff was the heart and soul of the newsroom’s 24/7 operations.
Our father passed away last week following a 3-year battle with a rare blood cancer. Continuing to provide the level of coverage WestportNow readers expect and deserve without his leadership would be challenging. For this reason, WestportNow will cease publication at the end of the month….
We are deeply indebted to all WestportNow readers, contributors, and advertisers for making the site a trusted source of fact-based information for so many years. None of this would have been possible without you.
Westport is an incredible community. Thank you for allowing WestportNow to tell its stories.
Fortunately, all WestportNow content will remain accessible, online.
Today is a sad day for local journalism. Since 2009, WestportNow and “06880” have been friendly competitors — and friends.
Gordon Joseloff. Photographer Lynn Untermeyer Miller is a longtime WestportNow contributor.
I have picked up plenty of story ideas from them (and vice versa). From time to time, Gordon let me know about a piece that was not right for WestportNow, but might work on my site. I did the same.
It’s safe to say that without WestportNow leading the way, there would be no “06880.”
It’s also safe to say that without WestportNow, countless readers — here and around the globe — would know a lot less about their town. They’d feel a lot less connected to the goings-on in Town Hall, the library, the arts, the store opening up downtown and the house being torn down next door.
For 18 years, Gordon Joseloff set the bar high. I can’t imagine a local news site anywhere that lasted as long as his, with as much material, in so broad a way.
Next month, the Westport journalism scene will lose a major player. I’m thankful for what we’ve had for nearly 2 decades.
And I’m glad that archive will still be online. It will be as invaluable in the years ahead as it has been since 2003.
