There are some tickets left! Looking forward to meeting you all Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m. for meet and greet, then speakers and light refreshments and cash bar at McAuliffe/Shepard Discovery Center in Concord. Nancy West
Go to Eventbrite for tickets: https://tinyurl.com/pdthhhw5
By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism is thrilled to invite you to the party celebrating InDepthNH.org’s 10th anniversary Oct. 22 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the McAuliffe/Shepard Discovery Center in Concord.
It will be all about us and you and the future of news in New Hampshire with special guest speaker Dick Tofel, former president of ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news outlet, a meet and greet with our writers, friends and board members, cash bar and beverages for sale, free bumper stickers, lots of fun, a few foibles, a skit, and appetizers. Trust me, news people know how to party.
DICK TOFEL
Tofel will be featured speaker in Concord on Oct. 22, 2025, when he appears at InDepthNH.org’s 10th anniversary celebration at the Christa McAuliffe-Alan B. Shepard Discovery Center on the grounds of the N.H. Technical Institute in Concord.
Hear his thoughts on topics that are driving the future of news, and why what Tofel writes matters to a free press. His column is available here: https://dicktofel.substack.com
He will be joined on stage by Nancy West, founder of InDepthNH.org and the main force behind this New Hampshire nonprofit news outlet.
Also appearing will be George Bald and Steve Taylor, both board members of the nonprofit that runs InDepthNH.org, the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. Bald is the former state commissioner of the Department of Resources & Economic Development, and Taylor served for 25 years as New Hampshire’s agriculture commissioner. They will talk about why they are involved in nonprofit news.
InDepthNH.org is a nonprofit watchdog that provides vigorous, in-depth news coverage of state issues that matter. The Oct. 22 event is from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will feature light refreshments and a cash bar.
Tofel was the founding general manager (and first employee) of ProPublica from 2007-2012, and its president from 2013 until September 2021. As president, he had responsibility for all of ProPublica’s non-journalism operations, including communications, legal, development, finance and budgeting, and human resources. During the period of Tofel’s business leadership, ProPublica published stories that won seven Pulitzer Prizes, seven National Magazine Awards, five Peabody Awards, three Emmy Awards and eleven George Polk Awards, among other honors. Also during this time, ProPublica grew from an initial staff of just over 20 to more than 160, and raised more than $225 million from other than its founding funders.
He is now an instructor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he led a faculty seminar on “The Pandemic, the Press, and Public Health” and teaches a course on “Engaging with the Press.” Tofel was formerly the assistant publisher of The Wall Street Journal, with responsibility for its international editions and U.S. special editions, and, earlier, an assistant managing editor of the paper, vice president, corporate communications for Dow Jones & Company, and an assistant general counsel of Dow Jones. Just prior to ProPublica, he served as vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Rockefeller Foundation, and earlier as president and chief operating officer of the International Freedom Center, a museum and cultural center that was planned for the World Trade Center site.
At the anniversary celebration, those attending will meet members of InDepthNH.org’s board and reporting staff starting at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 and may be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/4mn329va
Go to Eventbrite for tickets: https://tinyurl.com/pdthhhw5
Also speaking will be Steve Taylor, a lifelong New Hampshire resident, an independent scholar, farmer, journalist, and longtime public official. Steve operates a dairy, maple syrup, and cheese-making enterprise in Meriden Village with his sons. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor and served for 25 years as New Hampshire’s agriculture commissioner. After seeing the need for in-depth reporting in New Hampshire, he joined our board of directors. Steve published his memoir, Stephen Howard Taylor: Recollections of a life in newspapering, farming, and public service.
Get tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/pdthhhw5
Former NH Commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development
George Bald is the former NH Commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development. He has a long history of public service in New Hampshire and is a member of our board of directors. He was elected the youngest mayor of the City of Somersworth in 1978 at the age of 27. After leaving office in 1982, he was hired to be the Economic Development Director for the City of Rochester and served until 1992. He then served as the Director of Economic Development for the Pease Development Authority.
Gov. Jeanne Shaheen appointed him NH Commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development and was reappointed by Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and later Gov. John Lynch.
A Navy veteran, he has served on the Board of Directors of Granite Bank, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and the Pease Development Authority.
Nancy West founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism in 2015. West is the executive editor of the center’s news website InDepthNH.org. West has won many awards for reporting during her 30 plus years at the New Hampshire Union Leader and at InDepthNH.org. She has taught investigative journalism at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting’s summer program for pre-college students at Boston University. In 2023, she received the Michael Donoghue Freedom of Information Award given by the New England First Amendment Coalition. West is passionate about government transparency and finding a sustainable path for local news in New Hampshire.
The Big Night
I plan to talk about how InDepthNH.org started from nothing and in the last year had over 1.4 million individual website readers and now has 14,500 subscribers to our free newsletter, which is published five times a week.
We share our stories with all news outlets in the state and estimate upwards of 600,000 readers in print and online on those websites so altogether we estimate about 2 million unique readers.
We host interns from Keene State College, Southern NH University and University of New Hampshire.
In other words we are making it bigtime and have our board, reporters, columnists, readers and funders to thank for it. That’s you so please come celebrate.
Also please send me a sentence or two about why you read inDepthNH.org and I will add them in promoting this event. Email to nancywestnews@gmail.com. And please ask your friends to sign up for our free newsletter, share our stories on social media, and come party Oct. 22.
I am really looking forward to meeting you all.
Thanks Nancy West
Go to Eventbrite for tickets: https://tinyurl.com/pdthhhw5