• by Ray Schultz , January 28, 2024

Two Maryland newspapers, The Dispatch and Ocean City Today, are merging after more than 30 years of rivalry. The resulting product, OC Today/Dispatch, will debut on Feb. 2. 

The product will be “stronger as one rather than continuing to compete against each other for the same news and sales every week, says Steve Green, editor ofThe Dispatch.  

Together, the papers have more than 200,000 Facebook followers. 

“The idea of getting together instead of beating each other up week after week came up more than a decade ago,” says Stewart Dobson, editor of OC Today. “Steve and I have had conversations about it off and on for years, and nearly pulled it off last year.” 

However, “we’re both very competitive people, and it took a little longer for us to realize that the easiest way to win the campaign for readers and advertisers — and to do a better job of serving the community — is to do it together,” Dobson adds. 

Dobson will serve as editor and Green as executive editor. Christine Brown will be publisher and controller.

The news team includes Charlene Sharpe, Bethany Hooper and Mallory Panuska, associate editors, and Tara Fischer, staff writer.

“This is going to be a work in progress,” Green and Dobson said in a joint statement. “A redesign and reworking of the print publication from top to bottom is in the works and will unfold over time. The same approach will be taken with the two papers’ websites and social media pages.”