Publisher’s Notes: Gratitude, the Spy’s Jim Dissette, COVID’s John Griep, and Cambridge

As the Chestertown Spy enters the last few months of 2020, our collective annus horribilis, we owe a special thank you to our readers and sponsors for their kind support during what may have been the most difficult year of its existence. Like all enterprises, large or small, the COVID-19 crisis presented unique challenges to our mission. It was only due to our loyal subscribers that we have weathered this dangerous storm. We cannot express enough our gratitude. 

Jim Dissette
Editor, Chestertown Spy

I also want to give a special shoutout to Jim Dissette’s leadership as editor of the Chestertown Spy. With Jim’s return in this role, the Spy has maintained its kinder and gentler approach to the community’s public affairs while also continuing as both advocate and practitioner of the arts (he’s a poet) and our regional culture. Both the Spy and Chestertown is lucky to have him during such difficult times. Our readers can show their appreciation by supporting our fall appeal so that we can continue to fund this important role here. 

I would also be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the Spy’s public affairs editor John Greip’s tireless work in documenting the coronavirus pandemic in Chestertown and the entire Mid-Shore since March of this year. His reports have been some of the most read articles in the Spy’s history and a sober reminder that we have miles to go with this horrific disease before returning to “normal.”

The Spy is also celebrating the official launch of the Cambridge Spy today. It will be our third online publication for the Mid-Shore and the first to have a formal partnership with WHCP Community Radio. We have had a supportive relationship with WHCP ever since former NPR executive Mike Starling founded the nonprofit in 2015. This fall, we agreed to work collaboratively on original content for both radio and the internet, which we hope will be a successful model for our other Spy newspapers down the road. 

As the Spy continues to grow incrementally into other communities, I’d like to end with my own heartfelt gratitude to the people of Chestertown as we enter into our twelfth year of existence. Without the town’s early support of the Chestertown Spy and its very inexperienced publisher in 2009, this local news experiment would have simply failed. It is just another example of the generous nature of this remarkable place along the Chester River but also one that has given birth to a template that will serve the entire region for many years to come. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. 

Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Executive Editor