8. August 2010 by pat desmond.

Now that my children are grown and living out of state, I have more time to think about whether my life’s work is moving in the right direction.

I began working in journalism in 1966 while still in college. I had zero skills for the occupation but I loved to write and thought newspapers were about writing.

Over the past 40 years I’ve learned about journalism.

Good journalism is essential to preserving democracy. Shedding light on the issues allows voters to make informed decisions.

There was a time in my life when I worried about the direction newspapers were taking.

After all, my career came of age at a time when newspapers were taking risks to uncover problems in our society. The New York Times – and other papers – published the Pentagon Papers released by Daniel Ellsberg, making the world aware of the lies beneath the rationale for the Vietnamese War.

Then Washington Post set two of its investigators loose on the Watergate story. We all know the end.

Back in those days, mega-corporations hadn’t taken control of the news process. And Wikileaks hadn’t begun overwhelming the citizenry with information. Years passed.

The Milton Times began publication in 1995. Both of my children helped in the beginning. My son, who was at Milton High School, handled deliveries and picked up the newspaper from the printing plant. My daughter worked full time creating ads and helping with page layout on the computer. My mother helped proof the pages.

The paper has changed over the past 15 years. A full-size truck brings the paper to town because it no longer fits in a large car or SUV. There is a staff of hard-working professional who put the pages together.

About 14 years ago, the paper developed a static web site which has undergone steady improvement. We continue to think about ways to change and improve the product.

While I’ve been busy growing the paper, my children have moved in other directions. My daughter is working towards her bachelor’s degree while raising two children. She has written two excellent children’s books.

My son is working as a therapist in California where he seems to have settled after traveling all over this country and through at least four Continents. He will marry later this year and I gain a new daughter. Today he has a web site of his own. Visit him at www.psychresources.net for more information.

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15. June 2010 by pat desmond.

Last week I was in Michigan meeting with the other members of the Board of Directors of the National Newspaper Association.

Cheryl Kaechele, publisher of three papers in Michigan, is president this year and she wanted to show off the interesting side of her state. Ease of transportation is not part of the picture.

What I learned when I arrived at Logan Airport is that the body scanning devices are in place in the security line. Despite the fact security lines move slowly through the body scanners, four TSA people decided to randomly check people at my gate. The plane was heading to San Diego with a stop in Detriot. (Obviously, I was getting off in Detriot.)

I was in Zone 3, which means I wasn’t the last to board the aircraft, but in the time I watched the special screening, I saw several the TSA people go through the carry on luggage of several women in my age range.

Are any of the known terrorists women in their 60s?

Does the government think this makes anyone believe they have a security plan that works?

I remember traveling to Israel back in the 1970s and wondering why there were so many soldiers walking in the cities. Why people were searched before they could board a plane. Why there were fences topped with barbed wire near the sandy beaches.

It seems we are moving back in time.

Anyway I will be doing more airplane travel this year as I finish my year on the NNA board. I head to Omaha in September for the annual convention.

Will the Milton Times improve because I will be traveling more? Maybe. There are some wonderful ideas employed at other small newspapers.

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9. April 2010 by pat desmond.

This afternoon the board of the National Newspaper Association voted to fight the plan to end Saturday mail.

The board will be putting its financial resources behind the fight beginning with the hearings planned before the Postal Regulatory Commission.

In case you aren’t up on the issue, the postmaster general has proposed the idea of ending 6-day mail delivery as a solution to the fact the United States Postal Service is losing billions of dollars.

Newspapers that rely on the mail for delivery, like the Milton Times, are not supportive of this idea. We know that slower and unreliable mail will push more items out of the mail stream.

As a member of the NNA board, I was able to be part of the vote to fight for 6-day mail delivery. We spent about an hour on a cross-country conference call this afternoon, hashing out the budget details that will allow the NNA to be an effective voice as we make this argument.

The Postal Regulatory Commission is not the last word in this debate.

Congress has the power to decide whether USPS will continue 6 day delivery. It has the last word.

I am hoping that there are people in Congress who understand that the economy relies on mail. I know the readers of the Milton Times want to see the newspaper delivered promptly. We are in the mailboxes in Milton every Thursday. We already find that delivery outside the community is sometimes spotty.

Taking Saturday mail out of the mix will slow the out of town delivery. But as a business, the Milton Times will suffer far worse from slowing cash flow caused by slower mail.

I know there are other solutions to the red ink of the post office. In most businesses, the decision to provide less service only results in a decline in revenue. For many years, there were no good alternatives to the mail. Now most of us, e-mail and text to reach our friends. Many people use the internet to pay bills and transmit business information.

Maybe the postmaster general hasn’t had to wait 10 to 15 minutes in line to pay for a postal account. Maybe the postmaster general thinks that when the post office cuts its delivery operation by 83%, he and all the other administrators will take a 17% salary cut - but somehow I doubt it.

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21. March 2010 by pat desmond.

Tonight as I watch the C-Span coverage of the healthcare insurance debate, I wonder whether Congressman Stephen Lynch was with the majority of 219 Democrats.

(Well the reason I didn’t see him is he voted ‘No.’)

The debate was repetitive. The House is not in order. Is that a surprise?

I am thrilled that Congress has begun to address the problems of the working poor and the middle class.

As a woman who brought up two children on her own, I understand what it is like to face large medical bills. Children are prone to fall and catch all sorts of diseases. I was fortunate in finding many kind people in the medical profession who would give me a break when I’d pull out a credit card instead of an insurance card.

My small business offers limited medical coverage to our employees. The premiums have been skyrocketing ever since Massachusetts implimented mandatory insurance. Now at least, there will be some sort of tax credit going along with the cost.

Could this be the start of help for small businesses?

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7. March 2010 by pat desmond.

It’s been an exhausting week for Town Meeting members and others who have been watching the workings of Milton government.

Five nights of debate ended Thursday, March 4, when a motion to reconsider the Temple zoning article was withdrawn by the man who put reconsideration on the table.

Webster Collins had suggested the meeting reconsider the article so it could be sent back to the Planning Board. One hour later, after a number of town meeting members had spoken either for or against the concept of reconsideration, it was apparent the question was moot.

Temple President Linda Packer told the meeting the Temple has to act by May and town officials drew a time line that made it clear the article could not be discussed again at the annual town meeting.

Now the ball is in the Temple’s court. Some neighbors want to walk to retail shops. Some neighbors want nothing to do with adding a commercial mix to their area. Members of the Temple say their option is to sell the land to someone who would create affordable and high density housing in a way that would sidestep town zoning.

It was a draining process.

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1. March 2010 by pat desmond.

David Sumner Cutler, 66, a community newspaper giant, died Feb. 28 of bilary cancer in a journey chronicled on a web site tended by his son Josh. If you care to read that story, go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davidcutler/mystory.

His death was like his life – cutting edge, risky and complicated.

David was my friend and mentor. We met at the Patriot Ledger when he was just back from being a Marine in Vietnam. It was not until many years later that I discovered he was a hero. The paper for his Purple Heart said that while under enemy fire, he risked his life to save one of his men who had fallen in an exposed position. David was wounded as he tried to save a young man. His scars from Vietnam were usually covered by clothing and bravado.

He was always brave. He held himself to extraordinarily high standards. He came from a family accustomed to accomplishment.

His parents, the late John and Bobbi Cutler, started the Duxbury Clipper 60 years ago. He grew up understanding the difficulties of a weekly newspaper.

David was a graduate of Holderness School in New Hampshire and Colby College. His grandmother, the late Cid Ricketts Sumner, was the author of several books. She wrote “Quality” a story made into a movie called “Pinky” about the topic of interracial marriage when there were still states that outlawed those marriages. She wrote the “Tammy Out of Time” which became the movie “Tammy and the Bachelor” starring Debbie Reynolds. His maternal grandfather, the late John Sumner, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. His father’s family were Greek immigrants, making the fact that his father graduated from Harvard and authored a number of books of his own, all the more impressive.

In the spring of 1972, when David was not yet 30, he, his wife, and a partner, Mike Stearns - who had a small amount of cash - started the Marshfield Mariner.

Most of his friends in the business thought his parents backed that venture. We weren’t surprised he didn’t sink. The truth was what saved him was hard work, commitment, and a community that wanted its own local paper. He and his partner were just about out of money when the election season began and the Marshfield politicians began showing up looking for advertising space.

That wasn’t his only close call financially. David grew his business from one paper to 17 when he sold the operation to Cap Cities ABC in the 1980s. He stayed on at the green building in Marshfield’s industrial park for a few more years.

When he left, he partnered with John Coots, who had been his boss in the corporate structure. The pair bought the Southbridge Press which included the Southbridge Evening News and several smaller papers and David was on his way to creating his second newspaper empire. They also owned Salmon Press, a venture that publishes several newspapers in New Hampshire. He once told me he was amazed at the low sale price of some weeklies. At the time of his death, his holdings included 23 newspapers in three states.

David took over the ownership of the Duxbury Clipper after his father’s death in 1998. For more than 10 years, his son, Josh has run the Clipper. Under Josh’s leadership, the Clipper opened several sister papers, called the Express in Hanson, Whitman, East Bridgewater and Pembroke. Josh is no longer serving as the publisher of the Clipper since he decided to run for state representative in the district.

David is survived by his wife, the Rev. Catherine Cullen, of Duxbury; two sisters, Margaret Chandler of Maryland and Gail Cutler of Pembroke; three sons, Josh S. Cutler of Duxbury, Benjamin D. Cutler of New York and Jonathan M. Cullen of West Roxbury; three, daughters Carolyn M. Cutler of Georgia, Rebecca W. Cutler of Duxbury and Amanda C. Benard of Hingham, and seven grandchildren.

He leaves a large extended family, including ex-wives, former step children and many friends.

A graveside service at Mayflower Cemetery was held March 4 at 10 a.m. A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 13 at 5 p.m. at First Parish Church, Duxbury.

Donations may be made to the Cutler Family Scholarship in care of the Trustees of Partridge Academy, P.O. Box 2552, Duxbury, MA 02331.

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13. January 2010 by pat desmond.

The next issue is almost ready to go to the press - but interesting stories are breaking…

If I wrote about it now on this blog our competitors might catch up with us.

I’ll write about it Thursday, once the paper is on the street.

If there were a way to pay for a local news on the web, it would be great.

We  did test an online subscription model back in 2002. It was a financial failure. The good news is the print model still works on a local level. Maybe that’s because we gave up the internet experiment when it failed to pay for itself.

Right now we are testing another model. Once a week we email “With the Athletes” to a small group of people who have paid us for the email blast.  The column has long been the favorite of our print subscribers. So far the number of people who have paid for the email is relatively small. Maybe this is a 100 monkeys sort of experiment. Maybe it will catch on all at once when 100 subscribers have signed on.

I happen to think it is the wave of the future - but then I still read print newspapers on a regular basis. What do I really know about the people who think news is not worth the price of a paper.

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17. December 2009 by pat desmond.

I may have been born before half past the 20th Century but I’ve learned the language of the future.

 Not only can I be found on Twitter and Facebook but I blog about my life and work. I amaze myself.

My latest digital trick is posting to You Tube.

Click below and visit the Milton Times office for about two minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yupd4VqwBLE

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5. December 2009 by pat desmond.

Santa Claus and the carollers will be in East Milton in a few hours. So where is the snow? Why is it raining here and snowing in Houston, TX?It is slightly more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit  with a chilling rain. How will those reindeers manage?The Milton Chamber of Commerce, the town Department of Public Works, the Kiwanis Club are all working to make the day magical. But who knows how to do a “Don’t Rain” Dance?Will people stroll the shops? Only time will tell.

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3. December 2009 by pat desmond.

The first East Milton Holiday Stroll happens from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5. Fliers with the list of participants will be available on the M. Joseph Manning Deck.Carollers from Milton High School will be on the Deck singing. Santa Claus is expected to arrive soon after the songs begin. Santa has been invited to come in from the cold at Abby Park where there will be pizza slices for the strollers.M. Joseph Manning will flip the lights on the Christmas tree before 4:30.Nancy Jesson, president of the Milton Chamber of Commerce, will be handing out candy canes courtesy of Gosule, Butkus & Jesson. At Grono & Christie Jewelers, Judah Maccabee will be handing out chocolate gelt.Corcoran Brokerage is serving Christmas cookies and juice.The  Fruit Center will offer a series of tastings - from wine to granola.Fitness Unlimited has hot chocolate.Belle Visage is giving polishes or emory boards.B-Boutique is giving samples.Mellie’s Hair Design will have coupons available.Kelley & Rege will be open with cookies and cider.Rumor is there may be more….

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