InDepthNH.Org Goes On The Road Talking With Readers About The Future Of Local News

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH

LANCASTER, NH — Readers of InDepthNH.org came out in the pouring rain Wednesday night to talk about the state of news in the North Country and showed their support for the nonprofit publication that will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2025.

The event, organized by board members Lucy Wyman and Barbara Tetreault, was held at the Polish Princess Bakery on Main Street in Lancaster, and drew many people who are involved in the civic life of the state's northern tier.

They participated in an around the room discussion over pierogis and cake about why they came out and what local news means to them.

InDepthNH.org plans similar gatherings around the state in the coming months.

Nancy West, publisher and founder of the publication, noted that most of the revenue comes from generous readers and donors and that is one thing that has not changed over the near decade of online publication.

One of the founding gifts came to the publication in its first years from the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which also recently approved a $20,000 grant to the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which publishes InDepthNH.org.

InDepthNH.org's focus is covering the New Hampshire State House and stories that matter in New Hampshire, often covering news that might go unreported without its experienced reporters.

West emphasized InDepthNH.org’s reporting on issues of the North Country, including the timber industry and the advent of carbon credit sales, and the proposed, but scrubbed plan to build the Northern Pass transmission line among many others.

Nancy West, founder of the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, chats with Mary Lou Krambeer Wednesday night at the InDepthNH.org gathering at the Polish Princess Bakery in Lancaster. PAULA TRACY photo

Those attending said they appreciated the publication's efforts to uncover the names of police officers who may be compromised in testifying and are on the state's so-called "Laurie List" of dishonest police, editorial columns by Garry Rayno, a veteran State House reporter, and work on stories that other publications do not have the resources to cover.

They noted that because the North Country has recently lost a newspaper, the Colebrook News and Sentinel, and others have contracted and struggle financially, they fear for the future of local news.

Nathan Gair of Lancaster said he thinks there is no future for the country without local news adding that people cannot be further disconnected than they are now.

Rusty Talbot said he fell in love with New Hampshire when he attended Dartmouth College. He created a local business and recently ran unsuccessfully for state Senate as a Democrat. He said when he was door knocking as a candidate, he found many people said they did not know what was going on at the state level.

"That is just heartbreaking," he said.

Historically, newspapers kept people informed. Now that information, collected and spun through networks and social media, is being "thrown in a blender."

He said he really wanted to learn more about the financial model for nonprofit news and how scalable and sustainable it is.

West said it is a work in progress. There has been a growing list of sustaining donors with some who give monthly and that has made a huge difference. But her mission now is to build the business component to work toward sustainability.

And the number of readers is growing fast.

During the past year, according to Google Analytics, the InDepthNH.org website has been viewed 2.3 million times and some breaking news stories have been viewed by unique readers at least 50,000 times.

One way one-time donors can make a difference with matching donations is through NewsMatch, an annual giving campaign coordinated by the Institute for Nonprofit News. It runs annually from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

Annually more than 500 donors give during this fundraiser. West said she expects to break past records with local matchers and NewsMatch together allowing $66,000 to be matched dollar for dollar for individual donations up to $1,000 this year.

West thanked the gathering for coming out on an evening of torrential rain. Reading it and spreading the news about InDepthNH.org will help going forward.

"We really would not be here without your support," West said.

She handed out bumper stickers that read "Got News?" and includes the publication's logo.

E-mail nancywestnews@gmail.com with your name and address and she'll send you a bumper sticker and put you on our free newsletter list.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.