An attentive group seemed surprisingly not bored on Tuesday when my daughter and I spoke about The East Hampton Star, and our magazine, East, at a gathering of a group called “Women in Conversation” at Peconic Landing, the retirement community in Greenport.
My husband, Chris Cory, was the only man in the room, having snuck in the door at the back of the room after the rest of the crowd had gathered. He’d done so on one previous occasion, and was rather mildly, and a bit humorously, scolded for it. (“Now, Chris,” one of the organizers said, with a finger-wag in her voice, “this group is for women only.” He replied, “Who cares!” and kept on marching to his seat. Men and their privileges!)
Peconic Landing does boast a Men’s Forum, and Chris has attended it, among other samplings of the many and varied “Lifetime Learning” offerings at Peconic. The Landing is home to a large number of accomplished people, including a variety of professors from storied academic institutions, and you can study quite a few university-level topics during any given week.
It is noteworthy, and perhaps a reflection of the generation who call Peconic Landing home, that these groups are still separated along gender lines.
At any rate, we enjoyed the opportunity to acquaint people “from away” with The Star, which is — as we proudly told the crowd — one of the last family-owned newspapers in the country. A few of those in the room were longtime subscribers to The Star, but most of the audience had probably been drawn by interest in the Hamptons as a place where celebrities own houses and news is likely to be at least occasionally spicy and star-spangled.
The Star, as our readers obviously know, writes about what used to be called “the summer colony” — billionaires included, today — as well as about year-rounders’ issues and challenges, and the balance between the two populations did seem of interest to those gathered, who peppered us with intelligent questions.
Over the years, I have helped The Star keep up with exponential change. We have tried to report on broader cultural shifts, as well as the more mundane-seeming news of the schools and birth announcements and such. We have persisted in striving to uphold the rules of ethical journalism in a time when — certainly online, but also in print — the lines between straightforward news and blatant advocacy have become blurred.
As we told those gathered on Tuesday, journalism doesn’t always make you popular in a small community such as ours. The audience perked right up as we talked about the perils of journalism and recounted some of the more colorful incidents of recent decades (like the day someone angry about appearing in the police news threw a brick through one of our plate-glass windows, and the time someone pinned what appeared to be a voodoo doll to the bark of an elm tree out front).
Rarely do we get an opportunity to reflect on our work, or to feel encouraged by others about it, and we are grateful for having had this chance not just to toot our own horn but to talk openly about the enduring value of community journalism, and the forces that threaten it.
After the talk was over, the organizers asked us if we might arrange for a subscription, so that anyone at Peconic Landing can find The Star in the community building where public events such as Tuesday’s are held. We will be proud to do so, ladies, and thank you!