I’ve always been a newspaper guy, going back as far as I can remember. My uncle Tim helped me get addicted. My dad and uncle passed along to me a love for sports at an early age. I don’t remember when I first held a newspaper in my hand, but I do know, by the time I was 12, everything about the sports page excited me.
About 25 years later, someone pointed me in the direction of the Valley News. I grew up in Bellows Falls, Vt., and the high school was a part of the popular old Connecticut Valley League. It took only one glance to see the Lebanon-based newspaper covered CVL football much better than any other publication. The Valley News also covered Dartmouth College football at a high level. Every Saturday I drove to a store in Springfield, Vt., to pick up the paper. It was priceless.
During my formative years, we had the Rutland Herald delivered at home. My uncle bought several newspapers every day and I would go to his house regularly and read them. The ones I remember are The Boston Evening Globe, The Boston Record, the Boston Herald, The Boston American, the Boston Traveler, the New York Daily News and the New York Daily Mirror. There were very few night sporting events televised back then, so I had plenty of time to read. I knew more sports than any kid around.
I faced a battle with cancer in 1994. One of the positive things from that time was being reintroduced to the Valley News and to make it a regular part of my day. I felt the Rutland Herald was a strong small-city paper at the time, but reading the Valley News daily left the old Vermont-based paper in the dust.
When I publicly praised the Valley News to some people in the paper’s coverage area and they offered a dissenting view, I would let them know — with plenty of emphasis — that I have never come across any publication outside of a big city that did a better job of covering its region, both in news and sports, with balance on area interests, than the Valley News.
I travel a lot in my job, and over the years have come across numerous strong papers, The Eagle-Tribune in Lawrence, Mass., the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass., the Portland Press Herald in Maine, The Republican in Springfield, Mass., to name a few, but none of them gave their readers the local, regional and world variety so well presented in the Valley News.
Unfortunately, in recent years, each of those newspapers lost the battle to maintain their high standards. Higher costs and consolidations shrank them to shells of their formers selves in one way or another. Numerous other dailies have met the same fate.
I am afraid that, on Friday, the Valley News took a step in that direction.
As regular readers know by now, the Valley News has made several major changes, including setting an earlier deadline (10:30 p.m. instead of midnight) because, while the newsroom, advertising and circulation folks are all remaining in West Lebanon, the paper itself is now being printed at the company’s new printing facility in Concord. That will make getting reports from local night sporting events into the next morning’s paper a hit-or-miss situation. Many will make the earlier deadline, but any delay — a late starting time or a game going into overtime — will mean a game story will have to wait for the following day. Complete stories on Red Sox, Celtics or Bruins night games will be difficult to get into the morning paper, as will Patriots stories when they play on Sunday, Monday or Thursday night.
My reason for writing this is to say that I appreciate the outstanding job the Valley News has done for its readers going as far back as I can remember. The entire paper stands out, and the sports page has a big-time feel to it — locally, regionally and nationally. In baseball terms, it will seem to some that the sports page has now lost its fastball. But knowing the newspaper’s history, and the taskmaster determination of Sports Editor Greg Fennell, they will still deliver a quality product, despite the new, uneven playing field. I am sure the new presentation will adapt its way to success in its own right. But down the road, any comparison with the past would not be fair to anyone.
Bill Murphy, of Lebanon, is freelance writer, a sports broadcaster for 94 ESPN radio and a former high school and prep school basketball coach.