Within one year of founding their first local newspaper in Madison in 1996, budding publishers Ryan Duques and James Warner started up the The Sound covering Branford, North Branford and Northford.

For some, the idea of bringing a competitive print product into a market held for more than 100 years by another local weekly, the former Branford Review, might have seemed like a fool’s mission. But Duques and Warner knew the key ingredient to success: Be a part of the community you write about.

“Everybody out there knows somebody at the paper and it’s because we are out there,” said The Sound’s editor, Brian Boyd.

Boyd joined Shore Publishing in 2000 as a reporter and now oversees news print and digital content covering 13 towns.

“[The papers] have done well because they’re the readers’ paper. It’s just the greatest thing when people talk about ‘their newspaper,’” said Boyd.

Under Duques and Warner, Shore Publishing expanded to seven newspapers covering 13 shoreline towns, and acquired two additional newspapers. For Duques and Warner, it was a tremendous achievement, and the first of many successful ventures. In 2008, they sold the company to The Day of New London for an undisclosed sum. Today, Shore Publishing’s newspaper group is still going strong.

The Sound is much more today than a weekly newspaper, with daily digital publication of updated news, sports, community stories, features and much more at Shore Publishing’s online presence, Zip06. Readers follow The Sound on Facebook and Twitter and interact with “their newspaper” now more than ever.

That successful evolution is part of Shore Publishing’s continuing mission, kept on course by publisher Robyn Collins-Wolcott.

“As the news world continues to evolve, we are working hard to deliver content the way our readers want it so that our advertisers can be confident in our value. Sometimes that means presenting content in a mobile-friendly way. Other times it means writing print content in quickly digestible formats. And for some, they like the longer features to sit down and read. The fun part for us is having the products and the technology to allow us to appeal to everyone,” said Collins-Wolcott.

Of all the newspapers in the Shore Publishing family, it’s safe to say Collins-Wolcott has a special affection for The Sound. When she joined the company in 2000, her first job was as The Sound’s news beat reporter. She later joined the advertising sales side of the operation, then became Shore Publishing’s advertising director. She was named publisher in 2015.

“As my role has changed from reporter to sales to advertising director and now to publisher, I have gotten to do even more than I ever expected. I circle back to my reporter roots as I meet with local non-profits and organizations who need our help to get their messages out. I have yet to find one that hasn’t resonated with me. The efforts that people around us make are astounding, and as publisher, I’ve been able to help so many organizations by sponsoring their efforts to let our readers know what’s going on,” said Collins-Wolcott. “This philanthropic side to our business is vital for us and for our area. We are a partner. And nothing makes us more happy than when someone says The Sound is their paper. They’re right. It is their paper, because we simply would not exist without our readers and our advertisers.”

Jen Matteis contributed to this story.