Neighbors stunned by the closure of a local newspaper in The Bronx are rallying behind an effort to relaunch the community mainstay, with or without help from its former owner — the borough’s largest employer.
In August, the owners of the Norwood News — Mosholu Preservation Corp., an umbrella organization of Montefiore Einstein Medical Center — announced the paper was going on an “indefinite hiatus,” citing costs.
In the paper’s final issue, Daniela Beasley, who heads the corporation, wrote that “after years of working to sustain the publication, we have reached a point where an indefinite hiatus is necessary.”
The Norwood News was created in 1988 by a former head of Mosholu Preservation Corp., Dart Westphal, who wanted to connect residents in the north-central Bronx to the organization’s programming and give them a voice during an era of revitalization in The Bronx.
Its closure 38 years later left some neighbors reeling at the loss of their semi-monthly newspaper, which covered everything from politics to crime to culture.
‘It’s Where We Live’
In early October, a dozen former staffers, activists, and neighbors gathered at a private home in Norwood to brainstorm ways to bring the paper back, with more chiming in over Zoom.
Jarrett Murphy, whose first paying job in journalism was at the Norwood News while a student at Fordham University, said the group was committed to bringing back some form of neighborhood news. Although he’s since pivoted to nursing, Murphy spent years in local news, most recently as editor in chief of City Limits magazine.
“This was an important resource that we need to restore or recreate somehow,” he said, adding that nearby neighborhoods were “very lucky” to have had the paper. “A lot of neighborhoods don’t have that and it’s bad and it’s wrong.”
While they are looking at different models and ways to bring it back — from a website to a newspaper — the activists said they would love some financial support from Montefiore.
“We want to restore a news service for Norwood because it’s the place where we live and love. We’d love for Montefiore and MPC, who started and backed the Norwood News, to be part of that,” Murphy said.
Federal Cuts Blamed
The Norwood News’ closure comes amid a drastic decline in local journalism in The Bronx and across New York’s neighborhoods.
A spokesperson for Montefiore said the decision to shutter the paper was based on “resources.”
“Anyone following the federal cuts that have impacted systems like ours will understand that we must rededicate all our resources to the delivery of care to our patients,” the spokesperson, Bryan Lesswing said.
He added the company had offered the newspaper to The Riverdale Press, a locally-owned paper that covers another section of the Bronx.
“And while The Riverdale Press has declined our offer to take over publication, we remain committed to ensuring that our patients get the information they need to make decisions about their healthcare,” Lesswing said.
But Stuart Richner, the president of Richner Communications, Inc, which operates The Riverdale Press and other papers, said that offer came years ago — and that he had argued for MPC to keep it running.
“I pushed to meet with them to say, you should reconsider, it’s important to have this paper in Norwood,” he said. “They chose not to do that. To put any fault on us or blame on us is kind of ridiculous.”
A Drop in the Bucket
The Montefiore Health System is the largest employer in The Bronx, with more than 36,000 employees. It’s the 14th biggest employer in New York.
In its 2024 tax filings, the most recent publicly available, Montefiore reported $5.91 billion in revenue, and $5.62 billion in expenses. President and CEO Dr. Philip Ozuah’s salary was listed at more than $16.6 million. Salaries at MDC included more than $1.6 million for the then-director, and three other staffers making more than $300,000 in salary and other compensation.
The organization also paid more than $17.3 million to Chromista Inc, a California-based film company opened by Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky, listed as “freelance support.” More than $17.2 million was paid to consultants McKinsey and Co.
The organization also spent $9.8 million on travel that year, and more than $10.1 million on conferences, conventions, and meetings.
And it brought in more than $13 million in parking income, and more than $7 million from its cafeteria and vending machines, according to the tax document.
By contrast, the cost to operate the Norwood News, including salaries, was paltry — around $211,000 a year.
‘Honor of a Lifetime’
While the closure of the paper came as a surprise, the organization had begun withholding resources from the Norwood News for years, according to outgoing editor in chief Síle Moloney.
Before the pandemic, the Norwood News had a full-time editor leading a staff that included a part-time proofreader and events listing coordinator, one part-time advertising salesperson, at least two part-time reporters, two part-time photographers, an office manager, and up to four interns.
By the time of its closure, Moloney had absorbed most of those roles, she said.
“It was the honor of a lifetime to have been part of a team who, over 38 years, documented the stories of the people of the North Bronx and beyond, creative, resilient, funny, open-minded, hardworking, forward-thinking, generous people,” she said in a statement.
“I’m so very sorry we were unable to get to the hundreds of other stories we had in the pipeline, the types of stories we really wanted to tell had we just had a little more bandwidth,” she said.
David Greene first encountered the Norwood News in 1995 as a subject of its Inquiring Photographer feature while sitting outside a laundromat. He published his first photo in the paper a year later, and by 2008 had taken over the feature, asking Bronxites topical questions.
He also spent nearly 20 years delivering the paper, and often wrote articles.
Greene said he didn’t buy the health system’s explanation of why it closed the paper. He instead wondered if Montefiore had grown reluctant to support a newspaper that covered the good and the bad of their borough, including on a divisive nurses’ strike earlier this year at their own hospital.
“We ruffled some feathers,” Greene, who also created a petition to help save the paper, said.
‘Big Things for Local Neighborhoods’
Jordan Moss spent around 15 years at the Norwood News and took part in the meeting to find ways to bring it back.
“I don’t think Montefiore really understands what a unique, important news entity that the Norwood News is, or was,” he said. Moss’ job there was hands-on; he’d take a cab to pick up the papers himself from the printer, he said.
“We could just stick with things for a long time that were big, big things for local neighborhoods — schools that weren’t built on time, tons of things with the School Construction Authority, tons of things that they postponed for years,” he said.
“If we weren’t there to constantly put it in the community’s face there, it wouldn’t have gotten done.”
Marcelo Lopez Lopez, a community activist, said the newspaper was a way for his community to both feel connected and feel they had an outlet. “It’s important in the circles I’m in,” he said.
The News’ absence has left Norwood limping, one resident said.
“Not having a newspaper is like removing a bone in a person’s skeleton,” said Stephanie Coggins, a longtime Bronx resident and Norwood News reader. “Will they be able to stand up? Yes, probably, but they won’t be as strong and they won’t be as straight.”
Janet Goodman-Clarke, a longtime resident and reader, said she read the final issue with heartfelt goodbyes from politicians and thought, “Why aren’t they doing something?”
“These are the people in power, they shouldn’t just be waving goodbye, they should be doing something,” she said.
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