Donations and grants are playing a major role in sustaining local journalism in New Hampshire, its newspapers report

Lauren McKown, vice president of development for The GroundTruth
Project, home of Report for America, keynoted the event. (YouTube)

Philanthropy is playing a leading role in sustaining journalism in the Granite State, it was made clear this month at the New Hampshire News Philanthropy Summit at Saint Anselm College.

"Many news organizations are forging partnerships with community donors in order to sustain local journalism into the future and underwrite in-depth coverage of important issues facing our communities and the state," reports Roberta Baker of the Concord Monitor, which pays two its five reporters through donations. Her publisher, Steve Leone, vice president of Newspapers of New England, said at the summit, “I believe developing new ways to fund journalism will be key to ensuring its sustainability.”

Funding from grants and donors has enabled the Granite State News Collaborative, a collection of freelancers about 20 news outlets, to produce about 650 in-depth, investigative, solutions-focused stories since March 2020, said its director, Melanie Plenda. “Media outlets across the state that used to compete with each other for ads and eyeballs are now actually co-reporting and sharing articles with each other for distribution, all so that our communities have more of what they need.”

News outlets are getting grants with the help of The Loeb School, a Manchester-based non-profit dedicated to preserving freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Examples include the Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab at the Keene Sentinel and “The Sunshine Project” and “Voices” at the Laconia Daily Sun. “A lot of us have built (grant funding) into our business model,” said Mike Cote, managing editor for news and business at the Manchester Union Leader, which has six reporters. “The hardest part is keeping the momentum going. A lot of people don’t realize how small our newsrooms have become.”

Terrence Williams

Sentinel CEO Terrence Williams said it’s important to have reporting address community needs and find funders with “unity of purpose.” Sentinel listening sessions identified problems with health-care access, costs and depth of care, sparking creation of the Health Lab and defining its coverage, he said. "The Sentinel recently hired a statehouse reporter through crowd funding," Baker reports. "Two more philanthropy-supported reporters are starting at the end of May." Williams will be among the speakers at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be telecast on You Tube June 3 and 4.

Journalists and funders said the pandemic and the divisive political climate boosted demand for trustworthy coverage, Baker reports from the May 12 event, which can be viewed here on YouTube.