Indy Celebrates Seven Years of Local Reporting

On March 30, 2019, the Amherst Indy published its first issue. It contained 10 articles, including reports on the February and March town council meetings (by Maura Keene), the town-wide potluck celebrating Town Meeting (by Art Keene), Citizens for Racial Amity Now (by Jennie McKenna), the District One Neighborhood Association (by Meg Gage), budget constraints on the proposed major capital projects (by Toni Cunningham), the need for a new design for the Jones Library (by Terry Johnson), and an interview with the first Town Council President Lynn Griesemer (by the Indy Staff).

By the Numbers
Since that first issue, the Indy has published 7,572 stories, letters, opinion pieces, and events listings, written by 489 unique contributors. Those stories elicited 9,973 posted comments. Some of those writers have appeared just once in our pages, while others are frequent contributors. 

The most-read article in 2025, was my piece, No Kings #2 Expected to Be Largest Protest in US History, which received 10,116 page views. The Indy received 819,906 page views in 2025 (an increase of almost 128,000 from 2024) in 486,493 unique sessions (an increase of almost 148,000 from 2024). Indy readership averaged just over 68,000 page views per month in 2025, an increase of over 10,000 average page views per month from 2024. We recorded a low readership of just over 47,00 page views for a 30-day interval in early January of 2025 and a high of 114,643 page views (an all-time high) for the 30-day period ending November 14, 2025.

While some of that growth in readership is likely bots scraping Indy pages to feed AI engines (is that a bad thing?), it’s still clear that participation (reading the Indy and writing for it) has grown steadily over our seven years of existence.

Currently, almost 2000 people subscribe to the Indy’s free, weekly email digest. To get on that email list, shoot us an email at amherstindy@gmail.com. Please let us know if you are subscribed and not receiving your weekly dispatch. Our email service is fairly aggressive about purging subscribers who don’t open their Indy dispatch for consecutive weeks.

New this year was the participation of three productive intern-reporters, and we thank Norah Steward, Kiera McLaughlin, and Bella Astrofsky for helping us to expand our coverage.

Mission and Impact
The Indy‘s founders envisioned that it would be a community journalism project, an opportunity for Amherst residents to create an “online public square” where civic discourse would thrive, civic literacy and civic participation would be fostered, and a space where progressive politics would be promoted. Underlying this aim was a desire to keep tabs on our then-new local government, to support local participatory democracy, and to keep things transparent. 

The Indy was founded as and remains a free, all-volunteer, independent news source in Amherst with an unapologetic progressive orientation. The Indy works hard to present fact-based reporting of the news with integrity, and makes a clear delineation between its news reporting and opinion. We fact-check to the best of our ability, and we reject the publication of personal and ad hominem attacks. When we make errors, we correct them expeditiously. Our extensive use of hyperlinks allows our readers to know where our information is coming from and to explore further the subjects that we are covering. Along the way, we have created a searchable public record of Amherst town government that is far more comprehensive than what can be found in the official minutes of municipal meetings. We aim to provide a forum for exploring new ideas and diverse opinions, and to include voices within our town that are not typically heard. The Indy is free of advertising, aspires to remain so, and publishes under a Creative Commons license, allowing other outlets to repost our writing and hence expand the number of folks who read it.  Our Mission Statement can be found here.

As Kitty Axelson-Berry noted in an Indy fourth birthday op-ed there are several important stories from Amherst that probably would not have seen the light of day without the Indy’s coverage. Three years later, that service to the community continues with continuing and expansive coverage of the Jones Library expansion project’s finances, the languishing trash hauler bylaw reform, citizen legislative initiatives, the deliberations of the Charter Review Committee, the deteriorating condition of Amherst’s roads, and a variety of social justice issues, including the struggles of DPW workers for a fair contract and a safe workplace, and monthly reporting on the work of the town’s Community Safety and Social Justice Committee.

Looking Ahead
The Indy continues to invite and enthusiastically welcome new contributors writing about all matters of interest to Amherst. When we first gathered in the fall of 2018 to discuss the prospect of creating a local news source, we imagined that we would attend Town Council meetings, write up a summary of the proceedings, and post a report on the internet. We quickly learned that much of the “sausage-making” of local government occurs outside of Town Council meetings and much civic work takes place outside of formal meetings. Most weeks in Amherst, there is a full calendar of government meetings and civic activity that produce emerging stories that require ongoing engagement with local issues and the people at the center of them. We strive to provide encompassing coverage, but always need help in covering all of the bases of the town’s civic news.

We especially seek reporters to cover the following beats: Agriculture, Arts, Community Resources Committee, Conservation Commission, Energy and Climate Action Committee, Finance Committee, Governance, Organization and Legislation Committee, Recreation Commission, events within the schools, and Transportation.  It’s interesting work and does not necessarily require a massive commitment of time. Would you be willing to explore the possibilities of writing about happenings in our town?  Could you help us with one of these important beats? Drop us a note at amherstindy@gmail.com and we can explore the possibilities.

We also seek experienced copy editors who can help us put out the Indy each week.  If you have the experience and a minimum of two-three weekly hours to offer, we’d love to hear from you.

And heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed to the Indy in various ways over the years as readers, commenters, writers, and editors, and who have helped this project grow.