By Brandon T. Bisceglia
The Milford-Orange Times has expanded its local coverage to include a third town: Woodbridge.
“It’s exciting to share the Milford-Orange Times with a new audience,” said publisher Steve Hechtman of the expansion.
The newspaper will be delivered to over 3,400 homes in Woodbridge.
Hechtman has long expressed an interest in bringing the newspaper’s services to Woodbridge, considering it a natural extension of the coverage already being provided in Milford and Orange.
The move was made possible in part through discussions with members of town government in Woodbridge, who had been producing their own newsletter to inform residents about happenings in town. The Milford-Orange Times will be able to serve readers with much of the same information as well as additional reporting, allowing the town to save some costs. Milford-Orange Times coverage will remain editorially independent.
“We are grateful for this opportunity to work with the publisher of the Milford-Orange Times and make a wider array of information available to our residents,” Woodbridge First Selectman Mica Cardozo said. “It is just one way we are increasing and improving communications to our community.”
Woodbridge shares many connections to Milford and Orange, both historic and modern. Orange and parts of Woodbridge were originally sections of Milford when European settlers first claimed it. Orange and Woodbridge share a school system in the Amity Regional District. All three municipalities belong to the South Central Regional Council of Governments, the closest equivalent Connecticut has to a county government.
While the paper’s entry into Woodbridge represents a significant geographic increase, the number of readers being served will increase by less than 15 percent. Woodbridge’s population was 9,067, according to the 2020 US Census. Orange’s population stood at 14,280, while Milford’s was 50,558.