Nestled in Peconic Bay between the twin forks of Long Island's East End, Shelter Island is the smallest of Suffolk County's 10 towns. Three hundred and seven years after its founding, the Town of Shelter Island got its first weekly newspaper that would survive past infancy.

That June 20, 1959, issue of the Shelter Island Reporter was a letter-sized four pages, typeset in a private home on a manual typewriter. More than 40 years later, the Reporter is a robust, award-winning local news tabloid that published a 136-page issue on Memorial Day weekend 1999. It is the official town newspaper for this small 7,500-acre community of some 2,400 year-round residents, a population that swells to an estimated 10,000 on summer holiday weekends when visitors ride the Island's two ferries to reach its shores. The Reporter's year-round weekly circulation averaged 3,300 in 1999, enabling its staff to boast, with straight faces, that it is geopolitically the world's best read newspaper. That claim remains unchallenged.

The Reporter has been consistently named among the best weeklies in its circulation class by the New York Press Association, and was a top-10 NYPA winner for advertising excellence in 1999. Over the years it has garnered numerous other professional honors awarded by the NYPA and the Long Island Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Since its founding, the Reporter has been a strong and consistent editorial advocate of environmental conservation and controlled development, and a sturdy defender, against all corners, of independent home rule.

The Shelter Island Reporter phone number is 631-749-1000.

Our office is located at: 50 North Ferry Road, Shelter Island, New York 11964

Our mailing address is:
Shelter Island Reporter
P.O. Box 756, Shelter Island, New York 11964

News tips and general queries may be made to: The Shelter Island Reporter Comments or questions on the Reporter website may be made to: The Shelter Island Reporter webmaster