On Tuesday, Daily Hampshire Gazette Editor-In-Chief Brooke Hauser announced that she had lost her job. Hauser took the position at the 234 year-old publication – the longest running daily newspaper in Massachusetts – in the summer of 2018. In a statement, publisher Michael Moses of Newspapers of New England said Hauser will be replaced by Joan Livingston of the Greenfield Recorder. NNE continues to lay off employees and sell holdings. Hauser spoke with WAMC about her time at the Gazette as she cleaned out her office in Northampton Tuesday.
HAUSER: It is the community. I mean, not the entire community, because not everybody reads it, not everybody writes for it and engages with it. But, you know, I was Arts and Culture editor before being the editor-in-chief here, and I come from a long history of journalism in all different fields- you know, magazine, books, newspapers. But you know, I live here, I live in this community, and when I open the Gazette, because I read it every morning, I see my city's mayor and my friends and my neighbors, and what's happening with my kids' school district, and, I mean, it is the community itself reflected back to you. And one thing I've been very proud of, in addition to our reporting and the work of our writers and photographers here, is the work of our columnists on the opinion page and the features sections, people who- We have such talented people who live in the Pioneer Valley, and that they take the time and effort to write for the Gazette, to share their opinions, whether it's about override or what's happening in the schools, or to reflect on the loss of RBG and what that means for feminists, we just have, we have so many great writers. And I've been personally very invested in bringing them into the paper, voices that reflect a wide diversity of our community. More people of color, more women, more people of different gender and sexual identities, young people, even more conservative columnists. I believe in a free press and an exchange of ideas, and it's been wonderful that way.
WAMC: Looking back over your tenure, were there any moments or stories or opinion pieces that you felt like best epitomized the leadership you brought to the Gazette?
Absolutely. I mean, everything I mean, my- You know, I've been involved in a lot of the different parts of the paper, so I'm proud of the whole paper. But let's see. Just recently, we won 'Distinguished Newspaper' of the year from NENPA, which is a New England press association. And we had wonderfully reported stories by a reporter who's no longer here named Mike Connors, who wrote about basically the challenges facing downtown Northampton. And that was written pre-pandemic, and that was called 'Soul of the City,' and it was a look at downtown and it kind of led to a community-wide panel on the future of downtown Northampton. We had another series on the opioid epidemic here in Western Mass that was written by a former managing editor and reporter for the Gazette, Laurie Loisel, and photographed by our photo editor, Carol Lollis, looking at the impact and the loss on families who've lost someone to the opioid epidemic. We did a story about the Clarke School for the Deaf having to kind of face up to these accusations of abuse that were leveled against them and abuses that did happen at the school and, you know, just taking a long look at the school's legacy and everything, how it's remembered today versus some of the things that were happening at the time that was written by Dusty Christensen. I'm really proud of what we've done. We've extended into Holyoke, because we've been listening to the community saying we want more diversity in coverage. And Holyoke's really nearby. We assigned a Spanish-speaking reporter to mind that beat. We joined a panel, a group of different media organizations, for a project called Covering Climate Now, where we were part of a global effort to address climate change in our local reporting, because that's a beat that's not present in a lot of newspapers. A lot of these ideas, I want to say, were not mine. They were brought to me by reporters. And one thing I've been most proud of here is the fact that I listened to our reporters. That the Gazette, when I got here, I was told it was a teaching newsroom or learning newsroom, something to that effect. And yes, I'm constantly teaching- like I am a teacher, I have history working at Smith College, teaching writing there and I love teaching. But they've taught me a lot too. And they've pressed me and challenged me and asked me questions that I've grappled with the answer. And if you're not grappling with an answer, it means you're not really seriously considering the question. So I just want to point that out, that a part of my leadership has been to listen to my staff. And I hope it's something that the new leadership does going forward because I have great staff, and they have a lot to offer.
Do you feel like you're leaving the paper in good hands?
I'd rather not answer that question right now. I don't know all the details. But let me say this: I hope people subscribe and support the Gazette, because the community needs the paper and the paper definitely needs the community.
