The Suncook Valley Sun, a community newspaper serving the towns of Pittsfield, Barnstead, Chichester, Northwood, and Epsom, is shutting down later this month.

The free paper was delivered weekly to about 8,000 residents. It included press releases about community events and fundraisers, as well as articles, obituaries and letters to the editor from area residents.

Ross Morse inherited the family business from his father, who bought the paper more than 35 years ago. He says they funded it largely through ads from small businesses, which have dwindled in the last decade.

Morse says the paper's closure leaves the Suncook Valley with no local news source.

"[Readers are] sending their condolences - it's the idea that this is something that they've come to know as always being there," he says. "It's going to be a void that I don't know will be able to be filled."