Changes Coming To SOURCE in Its 7th Year

FRAMINGHAM – SOURCE begins its 7th year publishing today.

The digital news outlet has been publishing news reports, press releases, and more for 24-hours-a-day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year since April of 2016.

In 2022, SOURCE had more than 5.5 million page views and averaged more than 150,000 readers per month, according to Google analytics.

Last month, SOURCE had more than 900,000 page views.

After 6 years, SOURCE now has more than 16,000 followers on Facebook.

The news outlet has had huge editorial successes over the last 6 years.

But financially, the media outlet has struggled.

When I launched SOURCE in 2016, I wanted EVERY ONE in the community to have access to news.

That meant, SOURCE launched without a paywall.

News should not be only for those who can afford it.

So I went with a television-model for news – news is free and local advertising supports the production of news.

SOURCE wrote about events regardless of who was advertising, and sometimes the digital news site lost advertisers due to its editorial reports.

I am grateful to those who have been advertising with SOURCE since the beginning — Christa McAuliffe Charter School, Realtor Aimee Siers, and Realtor Phil Ottaviani Jr.

I am also grateful to the advertisers who have been consistently with SOURCE over the years including St. Bridget School, the MetroWest YMCA, McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home, SKM Collection, and European Wax Center.

When the pandemic hit, SOURCE never closed.

The digital news outlet continued to publish reports daily – averaging more than a dozen reports per day.

SOURCE still produces – on average – more than a dozen reports per day.

Our competitors are lucky if they produce 12 reports a week on Framingham.

This week, SOURCE will post its 20,000th report, press release, or event listing since the pandemic started. Another fabulous editorial milestone.

But when the pandemic happened SOURCE lost more than half of its advertisers.

Some never returned post-pandemic.

Some advertisers still owe bills months and years later.

Post-pandemic is a struggle for many small businesses. I hear constantly from small businesses, that after rent, utilities, inventory, and staffing costs, they have no money for advertising.

While I love my career as a journalist, editor, and publisher, the stress of trying to produce news daily with a volatile advertising market has taken a toll on me, as owner and as a journalist.

I have not had 2-days off in a row, since before the pandemic.

I have been reporting and writing about Framingham news for 13 years – first when I launched the Patch site for AOL and then when I created the SOURCE site.

And I would continue to do it for another 13 years, 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year, if when I went to pay bills there was money in the checking account, and I was not maxed out in debt. Passion for journalism and passion for Framingham is just not enough for me. I need a work-life balance, too.

So beginning May 1, SOURCE will go to a self-publishing model.

I will continue to own the SOURCE site, but I will not be reporting on news in the City, and I will not oversee the site on a day-to-day basis.

I am hiring a webmaster.

Organizations, funeral homes, government agencies, school PTOs, sports teams can request a login to SOURCE and you can start self-publishing as early as next week. If you would like a login, email editor@framinghamsource.com

The news will post directly on the site, and it will also post on Facebook and Twitter, to a combined 20,000 followers on social media.

I have been blessed to have such a tremendous following editorially.

The logo for SOURCE, created by Framingham resident Rob Levine, had “our Framingham:” in it as I always viewed the digital news site as a community site where so many contributed. The site is still for the community, with the community posting its news to share with all of SOURCE’s loyal readers.

I’ll be posting more over the next couple weeks on how to self publish and more details on the webmaster who will answer tech questions.

For now, I just want to say thank you for letting me share the news of the community with all of you.

— Susan Petroni