By age 14, Billy Stern was done with standard summer jobs. Selling lemonade on the beaches of Montauk, New York, didn’t satisfy the savvy entrepreneur.
Billy started brainstorming last January. He realized there was no summer weekly newspaper that covered his Long Island community. No news was good news for Billy.
“It’s not like we had any competition,” Billy says, now 15. “We could just fill that space, and we did.”
In the summer of 2024, The Ditch Weekly was born. The name is inspired by Ditch Plains, a favorite beach hangout.
Billy did his research before a single edition released.
He checked another regional newspaper’s website to review its ad prices. That gave him a range for pitching ad sales to potential customers.
Billy called the local printer. He had to ensure ad revenue would cover printing costs, freelance writers’ salaries, and delivery runs.
The Ditch Weekly ran for its second summer this year. Copies are free, and ads make the paper profitable. “We have a goal each week, and we know how to hit it,” Billy says.
Billy collaborated with friends and scouted writers to build a team. He employs 20 teens. He tries to match writers’ interests with their assignments. “That’s how you get the best content,” he says. (The WORLDteen editor agrees!)
The Ditch Weekly consists of eight pages covering nearby summer camps, restaurant reviews, the history of local attractions, and more. Each week’s print run was about 2,000 copies, with the July 4th edition running 3,000. The paper ran from late May through September 1 in 2025.
A major headline in July celebrated the local baseball team making it to the county finals for the first time in 30 years. The article emphasized a player’s viewpoint.
“We tell the story from the kids’ perspective,” Billy says. That’s one of The Ditch Weekly’s distinctives.
The paper is well received. The New York Times featured it, and demand increased. Last summer, Billy sensed locals wanted to support young people in a new endeavor. This summer, “People . . . really want us. They want to be in our paper because they know that so many people read it on the beach.”
The paper also gives back. Ten percent of revenue goes to A Walk on Water, a nonprofit that teaches kids with special needs how to surf.
Billy’s advice to others who want to start similar businesses is practical: “There’s one way to do it, and that’s working hard. . . . I’ve put in so many hours.”
Why? People of all ages serve a role in God’s kingdom. Teens can use God-given skills to earn an honest wage that benefits customers and builds up their communities.
Recommended Reading: For more on innovative business ideas, read Better Than a Lemonade Stand by Daryl Bernstein. To learn more about journalists, read Who Was Ida B. Wells? by Sarah Fabiny.
