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The author discusses the role of the local newspaper "Gloucester Daily Times" in creating social capital for the community in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He asserts that the newspaper's coverage of St. Peter's Fiesta enriched the experience of the community. He notes that community journalism finds ways to connect people. He tackles the decline in newspaper readerships and newsroom employees being faced by many local newspapers.

The author ponders on the demise of journalism and the significance of the newsroom of the newspaper "The Republican" in Springfield, Massachusetts. He asserts that the market for clear and sharp writing about current events is unlikely to disappear. He claims that editorial leaders at majority of daily papers in the U.S. failed to keep up with the pace of technological change. He adds that solid reporting and realistic storytelling are thriving despite varied methods used to deliver journalistic work.

The article covers a debate about a possible wind farm siting in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts. The Nantucket Sound wind farm story is one that has been picked up also by virtually every major paper in the country. There are strong environmental arguments swirling around on all sides of the wind farm debate. As the debate intensified resides of Cape Cod had a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction. Denmark has been discussed mainly by wind farm supporters, but opponents used the country as an example of a place that had zoned its oceans before putting the wind farms up. For three weeks in March 2003, eight articles were published in The Cape Codder newspaper. They had an instant impact on the debate. Participants in the Cape Cod wind farm debate could no longer throw salvos at each other without respecting the scientific evidence of and real-life experience with these European wind farms. almost immediately the debate became more focused: People began to demand more facts, rather than relying on the propaganda they were hearing from each side. Doing this reporting also led to covering other related energy issues, such as the paucity of natural gas and its effect on electric rates and the energy picture, and the ongoing discussions in Washington D.C.

This article reports on Media Nation, a daily newspaper about the news media covering the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts in August 2004. The newspaper resulted from a partnership between the Nieman Foundation, the University of Massachusetts-Boston (UMass Boston) Center on Media and Society, and The Boston Globe. Media Nation, was published on four sequential days as a part of the Globe's special convention coverage. The paper broke news on the plight of many international reporters who found themselves without expected workspace when U.S. President George W. Bush's administration failed to fund an international press center for the first time in 20 years. It examined how Arab-language news organizations were covering the convention and the growing influence on political reporting of Hispanic and African-American media organizations. The Kovach Library and computer room at Lippmann House were transformed into a newsroom for those doing research, producing graphics, and editing the content. Seasoned news professionals directed and oversaw a staff of 20 college students from Harvard and UMass Boston. Other news professionals working on the project included broadcast veteran and founding editor of Stateline.org Ed Fouhy, Nieman Foundation senior web editor, Melinda Grenier, and former Wall Street Journal graphics editor, Karl Hartig. Nieman Fellow Doug Marlette provided a daily political cartoon.