Join us as we bring to life nearly 300 years of Connecticut newspaper publishing. Although CT wasn’t the first colony to publish a newspaper, that is reserved for Boston’s 1690 Publick Occurrences. Six CT newspapers were in print before the American Revolution. Over the decades editors solved enormous challenges; contemporaneous government censorship, paper availability, the limits of early printing production systems, and simply the collection of news.

Newspaper publishing reached its zenith at the turn of the 20^th century. But the success or existence of newspapers increasingly became dependent upon the strategy of its publishers and editors.  With the advent of the internet, the newspaper industry has suffered a seemingly relentless downward spiral: the number of daily CT papers has dwindled, and many weekly newspapers have been merged into conglomerates. News deserts, a term describing areas with almost no local news coverage, has become a reality. Is this the end – hardly!

Presenter: John Cilio is a historical storyteller, author and storied researcher who has brought historical stories back to life for over 15 years. A member of the Organization of American Historians and a retired IBM corporate marketing communicator, John has published seven historical books and numerous articles for national and regional periodicals. His books and presentations cover a wide array of historical topics ranging from the modern-day workplace impacts of Women working in WWII to the evolution of helicopter development. His helicopter book, whose foreword was written by a son of Igor Sikorsky, is a listed reference source at the Smithsonian Institution. He is an honorary member of the Danbury WWII Lost Squadron veterans organization and lives in Connecticut.

This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Avon Free Public Library and the Avon Historical Society.

Please register; Zoom links will be sent out before the event.