Our View: Six Decades Of The Chronicle

In the winter of 1965, a small group of Chatham business owners launched the Chatham Shopper News, a “small, experimental” community newspaper designed to provide a new perspective on hometown happenings. The paper went through several iterations and name changes before finally becoming The Cape Cod Chronicle, an ambitious name for a paper that, for many years, only covered a couple of towns.

 At the time, it wasn’t at all clear whether the upstart newspaper would survive in a market dominated by a well-run independent weekly newspaper in Orleans and a comprehensive daily paper with a big newsroom and lots of resources. But with you, our readers, by our side, we’ve weathered countless storms — both literal ones and political and financial tempests.

 Nearly sixty years later, owing to the remarkable communities we cover, the plucky small businesses that advertise with us, and the steadfast support of engaged subscribers, we’re still here. Never particularly good at self-promotion, The Cape Cod Chronicle has nonetheless evolved into a vibrant news source that prides itself on independent coverage of the Lower Cape. And we’re still locally owned, which is something few of our competitors can say. Is it too early to say that the experiment in hometown journalism worked? We think not.

 You might have spied our 60th anniversary logo on the top of Page 1, a creation of our friend and former Production Manager Chuck Stanko, which we’ll be using all year. As we work our way toward our actual birthday in December, we’ll occasionally be featuring bits of our shared history and celebrating the milestones along the way.

 In a time when journalism is under fire like never before, and when small hometown papers seem anachronistic, we’re glad to still be plugging away, with your help, 60 years on.

Here’s a tip of the hat to our advertisers and to you, our loyal readers, for six decades of The Cape Cod Chronicle!