Sunday’s New York Times Connecticut section spotlights the circulation war between The Advocate of Norwalk/Stamford and The Hour of Norwalk (See WestportNow June 20, 2003).
The story quotes one Hour staffer as saying his newspaper and the area it serves—Norwalk, Westport, Wilton, and Weston—is the only barrier to The Advocate’s domination of lower Fairfield County.
“We’re the only other player here, and the towns we cover are the chunk they’d really like to have,” said Thomas Connors.
Close readers of The Advocate’s Norwalk edition have seen a subtle but noticeable increase in stories dealing with Westport in recent weeks as the newspaper seeks to expand further north in the county.
The latest came this week with two stories about the effort by a Westport doctor to gain approval for a controversial method of harvesting oysters off Westport’s coast using cages suspended from the surface.
The Advocate did note the story’s nominal Norwalk angle—the doctor is employed at Norwalk Hospital.
Durham Monsma, the publisher of The Advocate, told WestportNow last month that the newspaper for now is concentrating on Norwalk. But Monsma said the possibility of also competing with The Hour for Westport readers was “intriguing.”
While the population of Norwalk dwarfs its surrounding suburban communities, the towns of Westport, Weston and Wilton with their high net worth individuals are highly prized by advertisers. And that certainly is an incentive for any newspaper publisher.
