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South Shore Press warns Legislature an emergency move could 'kill a community newspaper'
Summary
The South Shore Press urged the Suffolk County Legislature to delay emergency legislation it said would strip a community paper of legal advertising revenue, which the paper's news director said would cause job losses and threaten ownership stability.
The news director of the South Shore Press told the Suffolk County Legislature on July 30 that an emergency measure under consideration to reassign legal advertising would "kill a community newspaper" and urged legislators to table the measure and meet with the paper.
Stefan I. Mychajliw, identified in the public portion as the paper’s news director, said he had learned through "the political grapevine" that the Legislature might move to remove current legal advertising allocations from the South Shore Press on an emergency basis. He said the paper was scheduled to receive substantial legal‑ad revenue within hours and that changing the allocation at the last minute would cause immediate financial and staffing harm. "If you vote on this today you will kill a community newspaper," Mychajliw told the Legislature.
Mychajliw also disputed a claim he said had been circulated about ownership litigation. He said philanthropist John Thaler is the paper’s owner, that a court had rejected a former employee’s claim of ownership, and that the dispute cited publicly is about alleged theft of intellectual property by a former employee rather than the question of ownership. He told the Legislature he would file documentation with the clerk.
Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey and other legislators did not take action on the floor immediately after the comment period. Mychajliw asked the Legislature to move the item out of emergency consideration and to invite the press into committee for discussion. The transcript contains no direct response from sponsors on the record during the public comments.
The Legislature later approved routine procedural and funding measures; no emergency vote on reassigning legal ads occurred on July 30. Mychajliw’s request to table the measure — and his warning about potential job losses — may shape committee outreach and calls for stakeholder meetings before any action is scheduled.
A copy of documentation referenced by Mychajliw was offered to the clerk during the session; interested legislators and staff should request the filing to review the legal background before considering any emergent procedural steps.
