Giving Thanks & Looking Ahead – A Holiday Letter from the Publisher

A letter from MyRye.com Publisher Jay Sears

Last year, I used this holiday message to explain why I publish MyRye.com.

This year was another building year for MyRye.com. Coming out of the pandemic we managed to hold and grow our audience in 2022. This is a result of a continued and relentless pace of publication, working with a myriad of local government departments and reps, local community organizations, school and residents to bring you a reflection of the community we all love.

We are grateful to our advertisers who supported us in 2022, including Lisa and Paul Murphy of Houlihan Lawrence, Meg Allen Rodriguez of Berkshire Hathaway, The Osborn, Saltaire restaurant, Graham Funeral Home, the Suez water company and White Plains Hospital among others.

If you value MyRye.com and other local information sources, you should know the future of local media is in question. Just three weeks ago, Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. and the owner of the Journal News and LoHud.com, announced another round of staff cuts. It used to be common to see the Journal News reporting from Rye, and people my age will remember when Gannett published local editions across Westchester County. Today there is scant reporting from Rye.

Other digital upstarts including Patch and Daily Voice are shells of their former selves, unable to find a sustainable path. News 12 runs loops of weather and traffic because that is the least expensive content to produce. County press sources have told us it is hard to get News 12 out for even their biggest news events.

Facebook and Google are eating the world – and that includes capturing ad dollars from local media. We have had local advertisers tell us they are redirecting dollars to Google and Facebook. Financial firms are rolling up and gutting newsrooms. The pandemic was another slap in the face, driving more layoffs. Increasingly, communities are in news deserts – places with no credible sources of local news.

If You Want It, Support It

If you value local media  – a place that builds a community’s identity, a place to tell you about high school sports, police and fire, local city government, our non-profits and community groups and our residents, a place to provide internships and teach the next generation – please support local journalism. Support us.

When you see a local business advertising on MyRye.com, patronize them. Call Lisa and Meg and the others and tell them thank you – they are the reason you are reading MyRye.com. And when you know there is a business that is built on our community, ask them to support local. It matters.

Happy holidays,

Jay