Ethics & Standards

The Billerica Paper is a publication of the Massachusetts Society of Journalism. We hold ourselves to the following standards in all of our reporting.

Truth and Accuracy

We verify facts before publication. When we cannot independently verify a claim, we say so. We do not publish rumors, speculation, or unverified allegations as established fact. When we make errors, we correct them promptly and transparently.

Independence

Our editorial decisions are not influenced by advertisers, political figures, government officials, or any outside interest. No source, subject, or stakeholder receives advance review or approval of our coverage. The Billerica Paper answers to its readers and to no one else.

Commitment

The Billerica Paper exists to serve Billerica. We are accountable to this town and its residents above all other interests.

On the Matter of Legally Mandated Advertising

Under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 4, Section 13, municipalities of this Commonwealth are required to publish certain legal notices in newspapers of record, and to pay the designated publication for that placement. This statute was written in an era when such payments sustained the journalism that held local government accountable. That purpose was honorable. The law, in its original intent, was sound.

What has become of it is not.

Across this Commonwealth, that statute has been exploited by corporate newspaper chains that maintain no reporters, produce no original journalism, and exist as legal entities for the sole purpose of collecting the advertising revenue that towns are compelled by law to pay. The citizens of Billerica and more than one hundred towns like it have watched their tax dollars flow into publications that have abandoned every obligation to the communities they claim to serve. The law that was meant to sustain local journalism has become the instrument of its extraction.

The Billerica Paper holds a different view.

Should this publication, at any point in its future, be designated as the newspaper of record for the Town of Billerica, The Billerica Paper shall accept the legally mandated advertising from the town as required by statute. However, it is the solemn and binding pledge of this publication that The Billerica Paper shall return to the Town of Billerica, in full and without condition, a financial contribution equal to the total sum of legally mandated advertising expenditures paid by the town to this paper in any given fiscal year.

The net cost to the Town of Billerica for legally required advertising in The Billerica Paper shall be zero dollars.

We do not believe that a newspaper should profit from a law that compels a town to pay it. We believe a newspaper should earn its revenue by serving its readers so well that they choose to support it — not because a statute written in another century leaves them no alternative. The relationship between a town and its paper should be one of mutual obligation freely entered, not of legislative extraction passively endured.

This pledge is not a promotion. It is not a limited offer. It is a statement of principle, made public, and binding upon this publication for as long as it bears the name of this town.

Effective: April 2026