I founded the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism to publish InDepthNH.org online because New Hampshire is in the midst of a news emergency, as is much of the country. If you don’t believe me, pick up your local newspaper or watch the local newscast. If you’re satisfied, then you probably don’t remember a decade ago when there were twice as many reporters working in New Hampshire in a competitive news environment with a hopping statehouse press room.
The jobs paid well enough to keep the best reporters working, and they helped train new reporters as they came along. There are few new reporters finding full-time work in New Hampshire anymore, and many of the experienced reporters who served as mentors have moved on through buyouts, layoffs and the need to make a better living.
InDepthNH.org plans to help turn that around because we augment the work of the fine news outlets, reporters and editors who are still hanging on during troubled times. Our business model is to give away our investigative and statehouse stories. Our mission is to increase reporting that is expensive and time-consuming and the first stories to be left behind when there are too few reporters at a news outlet to do them.
We have been working mostly as volunteers because we wanted to have a terrific website InDepthNH.org to show you just how good we are, what we have done and what we plan to do in the future. Now, it’s time for you to invest in our work. You will always know where your money is being spent. It’s time for you to help us not only earn a modest living, but more importantly to grow into New Hampshire’s premiere trusted news site. To cover the state properly over the next five years, we will hire five more reporters, two fundraisers, and a copy editor. We also need to pay a modest wage to the reporters, columnists, copy editors, cartoonist and others who work for the love of it right now.
The fundraiser NHGives on June 7, will kick off our five-year growth plan so you will hear us asking for your tax-deductible donations, underwriting and sponsorship like a broken NPR fundraising record now and in the months to come. But that’s because we operate as a nonprofit, building our future with your support, however you choose to give it. Share our important stories on Facebook if now is not a good time to donate cash. Our fundraising goal by June 7 is $50,000. Volunteer, whatever you can do to show you value unbiased, honest news, news that you won’t find elsewhere and want to be part of making it happen in New Hampshire. The more you give, the more we can do for you.
I want to introduce you to all of the New Hampshire journalists who have already thrown their hearts and souls into New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. Meet Nancy West, founder, with 30 years of experience at the New Hampshire Union Leader after starting out at The Littleton Courier. More recently, she taught at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University. Roger Wood – the man with the golden voice — has 30 years of experience with WOKQ, NHPR and many other stations.
Mike Marland, has been the editorial cartoonist with the Concord Monitor for 29 years. He has thrown his support behind us, too.
Longtime statewide outdoor writer and North Country newspaper owner John Harrigan of Colebrook writes for us, too, in his View From Above the Notches. He has been working in various media, with a lot of radio and television but mostly newspapers, for 47 years and, as he says, “still counting.”
Conservation Biologist Christine Schadler, an author and educator, explores her passion for coyotes and wildlife and about people and animals sharing turf in the Granite State in her column Howling from the Mountain.
Sarah Freeman-Woolpert’s column Sarah’s View from the Borderland is about the Pembroke native’s unique perspective on the people and places she meets in her travels. She is currently spending 10 months in Bosnia and Herzegovina conducting research on youth activism and civic engagement.
Bob Charest was special sections editor at the New Hampshire Union Leader for 25 years. He was a newspaper editor for more than 33 years and a reporter and news correspondent for several more. He has a special interest in the needs of the less advantaged, and in addition to serving as a guardian ad litem through the CASA program for 14 years, he was a legal guardian for a developmentally disabled man and for the past 17 years has been a proud adoptive parent. He has also served as president of a watershed advocacy group for the past 10 years. He is a consultant to InDepthNH.org and assists in copy editing staff-generated material.
There are more of us behind the scenes who do what they can. Spend some time on our website InDepthNH.org today. We work for you so let us know how we are doing. We thank you.
Hard times for news in NH
New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism
InDepthNH.org, nonprofit investigative news website
Website: www.indepthnh.org
Email: nancywestnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @nancywestnews
Phone: 603-738-5635
The nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which publishes InDepthNH.org online, is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News
New Hampshire news that matters
OUR MISSION:
Money and special interests are exerting ever-increasing influence on government. At the same time, traditional media outlets are drastically shrinking statehouse, public interest and investigative reporting while reducing staff and the money they spend fighting for citizens’ right-to-know in New Hampshire. To counter these troubling trends, InDepthNH.org fearlessly reports unbiased, non-partisan news that informs citizens about matters of public interest and moves them to action as full participants in their democracy.
Our nonprofit online news outlet increases watchdog journalism to reveal injustices while giving voice to often-marginalized and overlooked issues and people. We offer our stories free to all New Hampshire media. We collaborate with organizations willing to fight for government transparency and we seek new models with which to challenge government secrecy. InDepthNH.org seeks to uncover government influence-peddling, wrongdoing, corruption and unfairness.
WHO WE ARE:
InDepthNH.org’s Executive Editor Nancy West has won many awards for investigative reporting during her 30 years at the New Hampshire Union Leader. She has taught investigative journalism at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting’s summer program for pre-college students at Boston University. West is passionate about government transparency. Her reporting over the years uncovered and put a halt to a secret file docketing system at the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Her persistence helped to open state parole board hearings to the media and public. West reported that 43 convicted murderers are free on lifetime parole, but New Hampshire officials won’t say where they live or what is required of them or their parole officers. Most recently, West exposed a secretive, broken system that is failing to make sure defendants know about a police officer’s dishonesty before the officer testifies against them as constitutionally guaranteed. Because of her reporting, three murderers were recently notified 20 years after their convictions that prosecutors had failed to do so, opening the door for each of them to seek a new trial.
BUSINESS PLAN:
InDepthNH.org shines light on government secrets, exposes wrongdoing, and fights to fully inform people about matters of public interest that government and the powers-that-be would prefer to hide from citizens.
The lust for politics and civic participation in New Hampshire is legendary as our 1.3 million people celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 1916 presidential primary election. We have boasted the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for almost that long, bringing massive media attention to the state, often after winning the battle with some upstart state trying to muscle in on our prized primary position. Hopeful candidates traipse here every four years to shake hands with as many voters as possible while kissing their babies in this relatively small state bordering Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Canada.
We are one of only two states that elect a governor every two years, and home to the nation’s largest lower House, the third largest parliamentary body in the world, with 400 members. That doesn’t include our 24 state senators, also elected biennially. There’s another 80 elected officers in 10 counties in a state crawling with elected aldermen, selectmen, and even elected cemetery trustees. As former Republican Gov. Hugh Gregg wrote, “It is doubtful that any other state conducts as many elections with greater frequency.” New Hampshire is always in election mode, Gregg said. “It’s a way of life for our citizens that results not only in extensive political experience, but a very serious approach to participatory involvement in government at all levels.” Gregg, whose son, Judd Gregg, also served as governor, U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator, quipped, “At some time during their life most New Hampshire residents will have held either an elective or an appointive office.”
That means a larger percentage of the population than in most states has a keen interest in consuming investigative news that holds government accountable. InDepthNH.org will always maintain our mission first, but funding to make it possible will be equally important. Income generators will be put in place from the start. Our first two additions will be a contract underwriting salesperson to increase revenue and write grants, and a freelance reporter to increase the coverage that will draw more frequent visitors to the site.
We partner with legacy news outlets in New Hampshire and offer our stories to them for free. We plan to augment their coverage, not compete with them. InDepthNH.org plans to seek partnerships with radio and television stations as well.
MISSION MATTERS:
While funding is essential to sustainability, we always focus on our core mission to increase statehouse and investigative news, improve legal models to hold government accountable, and give voice to all people, including those whose voices have been rarely heard in legacy media: minorities, women, children, immigrants, the LGBT community, the elderly, disabled folks, people living in poverty and felons. For instance, I will seek grant funding for a full-time reporter to cover family issues such as healthcare, mental illness, poverty, child abuse and education. That beat would be expansive as what happens in families and schools also impacts business, employment and the criminal justice system. I also will seek grant funding to hire an environmental reporter because there is no journalist in the state covering strictly environmental issues. InDepthNH.org will also seek funding for an interactive page for poor people and organizations working to end poverty. Our reporting will augment legacy newspapers, radio and TV stations by telling stories across platforms via video, audio, podcasts and print. As technology evolves, InDepthNH.org will offer more choices to stay current with how people access media. InDepthNH.org will also partner with schools and universities to train the next generation of journalists and news consumers and also to study the needs of news consumers. This year we had a Keene State College intern who worked on the primary.
DECLINES, STEEP DECLINES:
Despite the true enjoyment New Hampshire folks derive from participating in their government, the last decade has seen a frightening decline in the amount and quality of in-depth news they get in general. Steep drops in circulation and advertising revenue along with the dramatic shift in news consumption to the Internet and social media have ravaged the newspaper industry across the country, but even more so in New Hampshire. According to Pew Research, there was a 35 percent decline in the number of statehouse reporters from 2003 to 2014 across the country, slightly higher than the overall decline in newsroom staffing during that period. That drop was even steeper in New Hampshire. A once-bustling press room at the State House in Concord years ago hosted six or seven full-time reporters, with extra reporters assigned during busy sessions. Today, Garry Rayno of the New Hampshire Union Leader holds down the fort many days working only part-time, with a couple of other news outlets staffing when possible. Last year, The Telegraph of Nashua closed its statehouse bureau not long after veteran Associated Press statehouse reporter Norma Love retired after 30 years.
The state with the highest rate of full-time statehouse reporters per 500,000 residents was Vermont with 10.4 with 625,000 residents, according to the Pew Center. VTDigger, an online nonprofit news organization that is also a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, employs more than half of those reporters. In less than six years, VTDigger has grown from scratch to having an annual budget of about $1 million. It has offices next to the state capitol in Montpelier and employs 13 people as it grows yearly in sustainable revenue. It’s a model that has been very successful for a small startup and in New Hampshire with twice the population in a wealthier state with an enormous appetite for politics and government, InDepthNH.org will grow even faster because of VTDigger’s example and support. VTDigger’s founder Anne Galloway serves on our board of directors.
FEWER REPORTERS:
The number of full-time reporters in general appears to be down by more than one-half in New Hampshire and there have been no statewide startup news outlets to counter the losses. New Hampshire is one of only a handful of states that had no new non-profit news reporting ventures until InDepthNH.org. Elsewhere, the number of nonprofit news outlets is growing every day. The New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s largest newspaper, once boasted upwards of 25 full-time reporters along with part-timers and correspondents. Today, there are eight full-timers and about the same number of part-timers and correspondents, although more of the editorial work has shifted to part-timers. Six years ago the Keene Sentinel newsroom employed 31 people, but now has only 24. When The Telegraph of Nashua closed its statehouse bureau last year, staff had reportedly been cut by a third under new owners who took over the year before. About 3,800 people worked at traditional newspapers and a few small book publishers in New Hampshire in 2002. That dropped by more than half to 1,800 last year, according to the state Department of Employment Security, which doesn’t isolate news jobs in its tally.
GOLDEN DAYS:
Yes, the Internet has increased the amount of news – or what today passes as news – available at our fingertips. This was the top international story on my computer news feed one recent morning: “Robot Kills Man at German Car Plant.” For national news, I learn a woman who suffered from amnesia was finally identified. In New Hampshire, I discovered that many kind-hearted folks donated tools to replace the ones stolen from Habitat for Humanity. While these items indeed have some news value, they are not what the founding fathers and mothers had in mind when they granted special protection to the freedom of the press in the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
New Hampshire Constitution:
Article 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.
Article 22. [Free Speech; Liberty of the Press.] Free speech and liberty of the press are essential to the security of freedom in a state: They ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved.
I call them “kitty patty-cake” stories after my favorite online video that shows two cats arguing in English as they play a pretty rough game of patty cake. See video: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=kitty+patty+cake&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=7FFF307A835FCFDF2E617FFF307A835FCFDF2E61
What is missing in New Hampshire? Stories like Roger Talbot’s in-depth coverage in the New Hampshire Sunday News that led to the indictment of the powerful judge John Fairbanks for stealing $1.8 million from clients. Fairbanks went on the lam for four years then committed suicide in a Las Vegas hotel room. In the meantime, Talbot tracked him to Canada and elsewhere and continued to investigate Fairbanks and those who helped him get away. Those were days when news outlets could afford to pay experienced reporters a living wage and a travel allowance to investigate important stories. Norma Love of the Associated Press changed the way some police and prosecutors handle rape cases because of her expose showing some turned a blind eye to victims. An article I recently finished researching and writing shows what happens when prosecutors protect police discipline records over the rights of defendants to a fair trial. The story was sponsored by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and was published on VTDigger and news sites across the country.
Evidence of police dishonesty leads to overturned convictions nationwide
These are the kinds of stories that are expensive and time-consuming to produce. Because of the staff cuts, reporters rarely have time to do develop these kinds of stories anymore in New Hampshire. InDepthNH.org will change that.
COMPETITION:
There have been no new statewide online news outlets – for-profit or non-profit – to fill the gap left by the staff cuts at legacy newspapers in New Hampshire. Paul Montrone has launched the Live Free or Die Alliance, a nonprofit online forum that provides information about candidates and promotes civil discourse on issues that affect New Hampshire people. LFDA does not engage in independent reporting, but rather aggregates news disseminated by other outlets in the state. This is a valuable news site for New Hampshire with more than 3,400 members and 67,340 users on Facebook and Twitter. InDepthNH.org will augment the work of LFDA and all news outlets by providing for free the watchdog and investigative stories that have been drastically curtailed in legacy media. New Hampshire Public Radio has hired Dan Barrick to focus on political reporting, NH1 hired veteran political reporter Kevin Landrigan after he was laid off by The Telegraph of Nashua and WMUR has recruited John DiStaso, a well-known political reporter and columnist who formerly worked at the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Experienced reporters Garry Rayno and Dan Tuohy both work part-time at the Union Leader. The Associated Press, and most of the larger newspapers have reconfigured reporter duties to attempt more coverage at the state house, but it still doesn’t come close to the kind of news coverage New Hampshire readers enjoyed a decade ago in a competitive news arena. Opinion leaders routinely tell me about issues and events that simply go unreported because of the lack of reporters dedicated to the bigger picture stories. News staffers complain they simply don’t have time to do the kind of journalism that truly holds government accountable. It is time to reverse this troubling trend.
MARKET ANALYSIS:
InDepthNH.org will succeed in New Hampshire because there is a dire need for watchdog statehouse and investigative reporting to augment legacy news coverage and a wealthy, well-educated population with a deep interest in public affairs to support it. Although there are far fewer reporters on the job today in New Hampshire because of deep staff cuts at newspapers around the state, the people haven’t lost their desire for hard news. Studies show that about 70 percent of adults read a newspaper in print or online in a typical week, with the mobile news and podcast audiences being the fastest growing. If 2 percent of New Hampshire households with an annual income of more than $200,000 (551) donated $50 a month as underwriters of InDepthNH.org, that would be $27,550 a month or $330,600 a year.
NH Population: 1.3 million
Percent high school graduates and beyond: 92 percent
Homes with computers: 89 percent
Total employed: 690,769 people
Total private: 542,036 people
Total government: 96,394
Self-employed: 51,564
Educational, healthcare, social services: 168,332
Manufacturing: 90,367
Retail: 88,947
Professional, scientific, management: 69,701
Arts, entertainment, recreation: 57,439
Construction: 47,584
Finance and insurance: 44,418
Information: 14,110
Total households: 518,245
Mean household income: $82,935
Median household income: $64,712, sixth in the nation
Massachusetts household income: $64,859, fifth in nation
Maine: $46,033, 32nd highest in nation
Vermont: $52,766, 19th highest in nation
Number of New Hampshire employers: 137, 815
Notable events: First-in-the nation presidential primary, Highland Games, Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Show, Prescott Park Arts Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, Maple Sugaring; two nationally televised NASCAR races that attract 100,000-plus attendees, national entertainment acts at the Verizon Wireless Arena, Meadowbrook Performing Arts Center and Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, Motorcycle weekend (the third-largest rally event in the U.S.
The need is clear. Strict word limits, story quotas and pressure to write sexy stories over substance because they require less reporter time have worn down journalists and readers. One reporter complained she felt compelled to cover simple stories that would generate more clicks than complex, challenging stories that would more meaningfully inform readers. As a veteran reporter with 30 years of experience, I plan to work with news outlets, schools, colleges and the public to train journalists and inform news consumers as we build the staff at InDepthNH.org. Struggling New Hampshire newspapers have been forced to rely heavily on free content emailed from police departments, government agencies and businesses to fill space. The pressure is on to make sure the mug shots run with each brief “because they get a lot of clicks.”
News credibility will be stretched in the future by branded news. These are stories that look like news, but are really advertising. Even the New York Times is embracing this concept. The line between advertising and editorial is blurring like never before. Facebook and Apple have both entered the news business. InDepthNH.org will remain old-school when it comes to ethics, but embrace new media as appropriate and as it evolves. We will speak (and tweet) truth to power, and push back hard on government that appears at times hell-bent on pushing its people out of the way.
Government agencies have become extremely adept in New Hampshire at orchestrating the news conversation. With so few reporters, people in power often determine which stories are covered and even how those stories are told, starting with a press release. It’s a standing joke in the news business that such press releases often arrive late Friday afternoons, just before the officials leave for the weekend if they want to be unavailable for comment. When officials refuse to release information that is public by law, there is very little push back from news organizations, except for an editorial now and then and a rare lawsuit. It is expensive to challenge the government if an agency denies a right-to-know request.
Years ago, the Union Leader, Keene Sentinel, Nashua Telegraph and the Concord Monitor – among others – would routinely go to court to fight for public information. Superior Court is the only recourse to fight right-to-know violations in New Hampshire. For the last decade, newspapers have become increasingly reluctant to take on expensive legal battles.
State agencies and corporations are more often sealing court records that generally would be considered public because they know publishers are unlikely to fight back. “We have to really pick our fights,” one news executive told me.
InDepthNH.org will also seek partnerships with First Amendment lawyers and law students to create new models with which to challenge government secrecy, and cover legislative efforts dealing with the right-to-know law. We will seek partnerships with other news outlets to cooperate on stories when appropriate and train and encourage interns and journalism students. I believe as Thomas Jefferson did that an informed citizenry can achieve great things. We must do our part as journalists to fulfill the dream of democracy. Nonprofit news outlets like InDepthNH.org are stepping in to fill the void across the U.S. and continue the important work of reporting the news during a tumultuous time in media history.
DEMOCRACY MATTERS:
What happens to government when the press isn’t watching? Or when there are too few reporters to investigate beyond a press release?
Democracy is threatened. It is that simple.
To counter that threat, nonprofit news organizations like InDepthNH.org are taking on the important role of government watchdog across the country. The Institute for Nonprofit News (formerly Investigative News Network) was founded six years ago helping large and small outlets fulfill their mission. It started with 27 members and now boasts more than 130. As a member, InDepthNH.org has access to training and advice from INN’s experts who teach best practices and help build sustainable nonprofit businesses from startups to well-known members such as Mother Jones and ProPublica. INN has agreed to fiscally sponsor InDepthNH.org until we obtain our own 510C3 IRS designation. That means INN will handle all donations and accounting while providing access to experts on how to create and build a successful news site as long as we conduct ourselves ethically and follow the standards for nonprofit news outlets to be fully unbiased and nonpartisan.
INN will not fund InDepthNH.org, but will be invaluable in helping us grow according to the laws that regulate nonprofit businesses. InDepthNH.org is fully transparent. Members and donors who give more than $1,000 a year will be listed on our website. We will need to raise a substantial amount of money through donors, grants and underwriters. Real news is expensive to report because it requires talented, experienced reporters and a strong group of professionals to make the operation work. We need your help to make it happen. We are also seeking volunteer members for our board of directors.
Our mission at InDepthNH.org is to report honest, accurate and fair news without fear or favor that will help readers fully understand and participate in their government and community. Jefferson said it in any number of famous quotes, but this one sums it up best for me:
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Nancy West
New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism
38 Edgewater Drive
Barrington, NH 03825
Website: www.indepthnh.org (under construction)
Email: nancywestnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @indepthnh
Phone: 603-738-5635
The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News.