Vineyard Gazette editor Julia Wells, who has chronicled the evolution of Martha’s Vineyard over four decades, has been named to the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Ms. Wells is one of three veteran journalists who will be inducted in a ceremony Friday evening in Boston. Other inductees are John Dennis Harrigan, a longtime New Hampshire newsman and wildlife columnist, and Carol J. Young, who retired as deputy executive editor of the Providence Journal after a 45-year career there.

A graduate of Wells College, Ms. Wells joined the Gazette as a reporter in 1984 after more than a decade of experience covering the Island. Hired as a stringer for the New Bedford Standard Times in 1973, she became a full-time reporter for the Cape Cod Times two years later, working alongside longtime Vineyard bureau chief Harvey Ewing. At the Gazette, she rose to senior reporter before being named editor in 2004 by then-publisher Richard Reston.

Over a long career, she has developed a deep respect for the people and forces that have shaped the Vineyard, and her reporting is often steeped in historical context. She has earned numerous awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association, for investigative, environmental and business reporting, as well as profiles and obituaries of Island personalities.

Hall of Fame judges cited Ms. Wells for leading the Gazette’s transition to the digital era, for her vigorous defense of the public’s right to know and for helping to cultivate a generation of young journalists. “A fearless reporter, graceful writer and skillful editor, Julia is also a demanding leader who holds herself as much as her staff to the highest standards,” the judges said.

A full-time resident of the Vineyard for almost 50 years, Ms. Wells for much of her career commuted to Edgartown from Chappaquiddick, where her two children, Emily Dwyer and Judson MacRae, grew up. She now lives in West Tisbury with her two Irish terriers. In addition to her children, she has two grandsons whom she dotes on.