This is our first post, so let us introduce ourselves. Town News Now is a new kind of local news platform, and today we're officially open for business. The idea started in Cohasset, Massachusetts — our hometown and the place where we first asked a simple question: what if residents could actually find out what happened at last night's selectboard meeting without waiting a week or digging through municipal websites on their own?
Cohasset was our proving ground. We built a system that monitors public meetings, agendas, and municipal records, then uses AI to turn that information into clear, readable news articles delivered quickly. It worked. Residents were getting timely updates about the decisions that affect their daily lives — tax discussions, school budget votes, zoning changes — sometimes before word of mouth had even caught up. But the more we looked around, the more we realized that what Cohasset needs is exactly what everywhere else needs too.
The reality is that local journalism is disappearing. More than 1,700 communities across the United States have lost their local newspaper since 2005, and the number keeps climbing. The lifestyle magazines and community Facebook groups that try to fill the gap do a lot of good, but they're not covering the meetings where your property taxes get set or where a developer proposes building next to your neighborhood. The conversations about schools, zoning, public safety, municipal budgets — these are the stories being left behind, and they're the ones that matter most.
That's the gap we're here to close. Town News Now uses technology and automation to do what shrinking newsrooms no longer can: keep a persistent, reliable eye on local government and deliver that information to residents fast. We're not replacing journalists — we're making sure the work of local government doesn't happen in silence just because there's nobody in the room taking notes anymore.
So here we are. What started as an experiment for one town on the South Shore is now a platform built to serve many. We have a lot of work ahead and a lot of communities that deserve better access to their own local news. If you're reading this, you're in on the ground floor. Welcome to Town News Now — we're just getting started.