State of N.H. co-signs loan to reopened newspaper

Two weeks ago we reported that The Eagle Times of Claremont, N.H., had been purchased by Pennsylvania-based Sample News Group after a three-month hiatus following a bankruptcy filing earlier this year. Now it turns out that the state of New Hampshire is guaranteeing 75 percent of a $250,000 loan from Connecticut River Bank for the Eagle Printing & Publishing Co., the subsidiary Sample created to buy the paper and some affiliated weeklies out of bankruptcy. (Encarta map)

The state agreed to the loan with the idea that the newspaper would help bring jobs back to the region, John Gregg of the Valley News of Lebanon, N.H., reports, but not everyone thinks the loan is a good idea. Lou Ureneck, chairman of Boston University's journalism department told Gregg: "It certainly creates the appearance and probably the reality of a conflict in the paper's coverage of state government. It's a tough and complicated issue, but this one sounds problematic to me."

Gov. John Lynch defended the loan guarantee, saying “It's really more of a job-development, economic-development type of issue.” The day the paper started publishing, it ran a congratulatory letter from Lynch, with his photo.(Read more)