An honest, reliable media outlet – one that not only alerts its readers to neighborhood events, but serves as a catalyst for community action – is an essential feature of any healthy community. In 1988, Dart Westphal, then vice-president and now president, of The Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), recognized that the area of the northwest Bronx served by the corporation sorely needed a vehicle for communication. Nearby Riverdale and parts of the east Bronx produced long-established community newspapers, but the economy of Norwood and surrounding areas couldn’t support a for-profit publication.

To fit the bill, MPC founded the Norwood News in 1988, a free paper operating under MPC’s then-director of community development, Betty Chen. The fledgling monthly newspaper’s first major story covered a controversial sewer reconstruction project, an issue garnering little attention from the city dailies. Instead of simply laying out the facts, Chen highlighted the impact that the project would have on the everyday lives of residents and added a list of official contacts to foster community action.

As the Norwood News began to appear regularly on street corners and in shops, residents took notice. A few stopped in to volunteer – including proofreader Judy Noy and photographer Jules Rubenstein — who have stayed on as freelancers to this day. Sustained interest in the paper sparked the rapid expansion of its coverage area (initially from Norwood to Bedford Park, then spreading to North Fordham and University Heights); its transition from monthly to bi-weekly publication; and, eventually, its ability to take on a full-time reporter, thanks to grants from the New York Foundation and the New York Community Trust.

Today, the Norwood News remains the only consistent source of community news for residents in the neighborhoods of Community Board 7 in the northwest Bronx. Unlike citywide or boroughwide papers, notes current editor-in-chief Jordan Moss, the Norwood News provides ongoing coverage on complex subjects, a dedication recognized in the numerous first place awards it has received from the NYC Independent Press Association and its first place award for investigative reporting from the statewide New York Press Association in 2007. Returning again and again to issues of problem landlords, the long-stalled redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory and the controversial filtration plant being built in Van Cortlandt Park, the paper makes these issues relevant and understandable for readers. The paper is also not shy about highlighting issues prominently, until elected and government officials take notice. Its Armory Clock, which counted the days since officials promised the release of an RFP (request for proposals), is widely credited for focusing decision-makers on the issue.  

Building on its success in bringing community news and information to uncovered neighborhoods, MPC launched the Mount Hope Monitor (www.thebeehive.org/mounthopemonitor) in late 2006. First exclusively an on-line publication, the Monitor is now a print publication and will be published more frequently in 2008. In conjunction with the project, we also introduced the West Bronx Blog, the first news and policy blog in the borough.

 “It is the communities that can least afford community journalism that need it the most,” says Moss. “That’s where non-profits like MPC come in.”

Visit the Norwood News Web Site at www.norwoodnews.org