Editorial: Let’s welcome back Shoreham-Wading River to the News-Review

What was once old is new again at the Riverhead News-Review.

Loyal readers will discover some tweaks in our weekly newspaper, and longtime readers may feel as if they’re reading the News-Review they remember from a decade or more ago.

The changes stem from our parent company’s decision to switch its North Shore Sun newspaper, which for eight years has covered the northeast corner of Brookhaven Town from Wading River to Mount Sinai, to an online-only format. In doing so, and ceasing the Sun’s print publication, it appeared logical to once again cover Shoreham-Wading River High School sports in print every week — as well as online — in the News-Review. But we’re not stopping there: Residents of the Shoreham and Wading River hamlets can also expect print coverage of district school board meetings, police and breaking news and the occasional human interest story. A weekly Shoreham-Wading River community column, penned by longtime Sun contributor Elizabeth Taggart, will also appear in the News-Review. (Stories coming out of Brookhaven Town Hall will not appear in the News-Review, but only at NorthShoreSun.com.)

Although Shoreham-Wading River School District lies mostly in Brookhaven Town, its blend of rural and suburban landscape, its social character, its neighborhoods and its people make it seem at times indistinguishable from Riverhead Town and much of the East End. Indeed, Shoreham and the Brookhaven side of Wading River are part of everyday life for many who reside in the western half of Riverhead, because they shop, work, socialize and have deep connections there — and vice versa. We think of those hamlets as encompassing a sort of greater Riverhead area that stretches east to Mattituck and Laurel, another hamlet that straddles two towns.

We hope our readers will appreciate what we feel will amount to more comprehensive and compelling local and regional coverage, especially when figured into our coverage of news and information coming out of the eastern half of Riverhead Town and across the rest of the North Fork, quality coverage that includes weekly columns, business, real estate and feature stories.