By Hennie England
Huntington High School
Teenagers from East Hampton’s high school and middle school write, edit, and manage their own newspaper: The Ditch Weekly.
The group is made up of about 20 kids, with ages ranging from 14 to 16, who wanted to create an alternative to being on their phones. During the summer, The Ditch Weekly prints 2,000 copies each week.
“Theres no specific weekly newspaper, so we really wanted to start a business that would build in that space,” said Billy Stern, the 15-year-old editor in chief. “It’s really fun. It’s a lot of work. It’s pretty stressful, but I love it.”
Since its start in January 2024, the effort has gained widespread attention. The teens were interviewed by News 12 and the New York Times. After being featured in the Times article in the spring, The Ditch Weekly received overwhelming positive feedback. Since the article, “Papers fly off every single shelf we put it on,” Billy reported. “Last summer our profits were three times the expenses.”
The newspaper gets its name from Ditch Beach in Montauk, said Billy. “Weekly is hard. We made that decision the first day when we came up with the name.”
The young journalists started advertising by going store to store asking if local businesses would be interested, but they soon discovered that real estate agents are more likely to want their advertisements to be featured.
Billy learned how to edit from a New York Times editing book he had in his house and from working with local journalists. “It’s important when you’re editing to make sure that you’re keeping the voice of the paper.”
Everyone has a role in The Ditch Weekly. Harry Karoussos, a 14-year-old, is the head of sales and Billy also handles the content and hiring new members. “I get messages all the time of people who want to write for us,” he said. “ I always interview them and I get to know their personality.”
He added: “It’s important you get to know the people on your team, you know their role, you know what they like, and you know what you can give them.”
His father, Andy Stern, said he’s proud of his son but also, ”concerned a little about his stress level.”
“They’ve taken it upon themselves to handle all the functions of the business,” he said. “It’s been amazing to watch Billy and all the kids just learn on the fly.”
But challenges come with being a teenage entrepreneur. Billy said, “The printer will, like, often email or call my mom instead of me because he thinks that I won’t be able to handle that. I’ve had advertisers not take us seriously, but I think a lot of adults, actually since we’re kids, they appreciate us even more.”
Billy said, balancing school and The Ditch Weekly can be hard.
“Often in class I’ll be doing it as well as my schoolwork, so it can definitely be challenging,” he said.
Billy plans to continue the paper until he graduates high school, but after that the future for The Ditch Weekly is undecided.
“We’ve thought about potentially starting a website for next year, although we really like the fact that we’re print,” Billy said. “In journalism that’s rare, at least today.”