The Fenway News celebrated its 50th anniversary last week, making it the oldest community run newspaper in the city.

The anniversary party was held at Kings’ in the Back Bay on November 13 and centered on honoring Helen Cox, an activist and former social worker, for her promotion and support of the paper over the past five decades. Cox, 93, is a neighborhood icon colloquially known as the “Mayor of Fenway.”

“She is a stalwart person of the neighborhood,” said Mary Ann Brogan, a board member of the Fenway News Association (FNA) who wrote about Cox for the paper’s most recent issue. “When I first moved to the neighborhood, at every meeting about this or that issue, it was always, ‘Helen, what do you think?’.

She’s salt of the earth.”

In prior years, Cox was responsible for much of The Fenway News’ successful fundraising, allowing it to flourish in a difficult industry. She also wrote a column for the paper in the 1970s, titled “Odds and Ends in the Fens and Fringes,” where residents could submit short thoughts on neighborhood issues for publication.

“Nothing that lasts this long is done single handedly,” Cox said. “The Fenway News reflects the consortium of people who believe in the idea of a community newspaper and work, work, work to put it together. How much do you think we were all paid? Nothing. But why did we do it? We wanted to. We loved it. And when you love something, it isn't work.”

City and state officials attended The Fenway News’ celebration specifically to congratulate and thank Cox. City Councilor Sharon Durkan announced that the city council had passed a citation officially denoting the date of the event as “Helen Cox Day.”

State Representative Jay Livingstone also announced that he and Representative Dan Ryan, as well as State Senator Will Brownsburger, had signed a state resolution congratulating Cox on her achievements.

“She keeps us honest,” Livingstone said in his announcement.

Cox and other members of The Fenway News said they wanted to see more expansion of the newspaper in the coming years.

The paper paused its operations in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After raising $17,000 since 2021 to pay off a debt to its printer, however, the newspaper has started publishing regular monthly issues. The FNA treasurer said in a meeting this past summer, “We’re in good shape, which is a bit of an historical anomaly.”

“There are things we want to do,” Cox said. “We only cover Mission Hill, Fenway, the Longwood area, Kenmore Square and a couple of other areas. We want to expand that, but we can’t expand it without more people.”

Expanding includes bringing in more writers and publishing a higher volume of content, but it also means innovation.

“Our first order of business is to rethink our digital presence,” said Steve Wolf, a board member of the Fenway News who handles the paper’s layout. “We have a website, but it needs to have a lot more functionality so people can find us more easily. I don’t know how long that takes, but hopefully within the next couple of years.”