The great debate is about whether Stockbridge Updates is a newspaper or a newsletter. Call it what you will, SU is the wave of the future — less paper, more narrowly focused. More important, most important, SU has the power to knit folks together through information sharing about our hometown and providing a forum for all in our community.

Stockbridge Updates is now 22 months old, just short of its second birthday. In that time, SU has included 150 contributors, 30 photographers, and posted over 600 articles. A paper that shared the news with the community (especially from Town Government) amplified the voice of our community.

Because this is a generous community, kind and enthusiastic readers have asked if they could help. Make a contribution? Pay for a subscription? Pay for a news alert (yup, those alerts do cost money to send out)? Support the effort with a few dollars? I always said no — thank you so much — but no. Money confuses the message.

Besides, I’m a kid from Minnesota and up there we have to earn it. Now we have. So, here’s what we want to do to stabilize SU and assure that it is a permanent part of our community life. No subscriptions: a free press should be free. No advertisements: say what you will, a newspaper endorses those businesses it advertises, and those businesses sometimes hold sway. Moreover, charging for subscriptions and advertising is the model from another century, and SU is moving on.

Folks who know about this digital stuff say they have never seen numbers like ours. I know why: it was an idea whose time had come. Newspaper or newsletter, SU is the wave of the future. What will we do? Stay tuned — we will not make a move without informing our beloved Stockbridge.

I believe in community. I believe in coming together. I believe we are less significant and less effective alone and a powerhouse together.