Locals of a certain age will recall that until the mid-1990s, there were two newspapers in town. The Observer and the original Northport Journal. The Journal was founded in 1886, and its official tagline on the masthead proclaimed it the “Official Newspaper of Northport Village.” This reborn Northport Journal humbly stands on the shoulders of our predecessors, with respect and gratitude to The Observer for years of local news coverage. We are bringing the Journal back now to fill a need not currently met in our communities: online journalism covering hyper-local news in real time.

All news is local. All local events are stories. The Northport Journal is here to tell those stories, providing an additional and different voice in the community, publishing on a medium sorely underutilized for local news in Northport and East Northport: the internet and social media. The Journal will not just report the news, it will engage our readers and neighbors in these stories, starting discussions that will make our community stronger and more connected.

Our new taglines are “Your Neighborhood. Your News.” and “Online. All the Time.” We’ll report the news as it happens, and focus on the people, issues and interests that make our community unique. We’ll spotlight businesses, introduce you to local history, and make you laugh with our cartoons and advice columns.

One thing is certain: here at the Journal, we’re committed to objective, fact-based reporting, and to showcasing the diverse opinions and viewpoints of the Northport-East Northport community on all local issues. Our Letters to the Editor page will be open to any and all voices who wish to comment on local matters, or the impact of state and national events on our community. We will leave matters of statewide or national politics to other publications with a wider readership.

The Journal is passionate about this community and the people who live and work here. Our founders are locals through and through, some born and raised NHS grads, some more recent transplants, all with deep ties in the community, most raising little Tigers right here in town. We are as committed to this community as our readers, and this will be evident in our dogged determination to ask the probing questions and deliver information without prejudice or agenda.

It’s been a challenging year for all of us. During difficult times, we turn to the news to try to make sense of what’s going on. There has never been a more important time for the power of journalism to shine a guiding light, and tell the hopeful stories about good work happening in our community, ensuring transparency in government and public agencies, and enhancing the opportunities for our local businesses to make a big comeback from an unprecedented crisis.

We look forward to telling the story of Northport and East Northport on these pages in the coming months and years. We welcome any and all feedback, suggestions and ideas on how we can continue to keep you informed with the best local news and share the challenges, triumphs, common bonds and indisputable differences that make us who we are as a community.

Every subscription helps cover the costs to keep the paper online and operating, and contributes to our mission: to deliver to the community the best local news possible, quickly and credibly.