'The Forum' Is Shuttered, But Lives On As A Local Matcher For InDepthNH.Org

By InDepth NH

The Forum closed in October 2023 and is donating the $3,503.36 left in its bank account as a Local Matcher for InDepthNH.org's NewsMatch fundraiser, which can be doubled by donations up to $1,000. Courtesy photo

The nonprofit hyper-local "The Philbrick-James Forum" had a website and for a number of years mailed quarterly paper editions providing news coverage and civic engagement to every household in four towns - Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, and Nottingham - free of charge.

"To support this mailing effort we held fundraisers, wrote some grants and sold ads in both the online and print formats. Our online following included folks who had ties to the area from all across the country and abroad. As I recall we were printing and mailing around 18,000 copies for the four towns," said Barbara Mathews, board treasurer.

"It was a very sad decision to close The Forum," she said. But readership was declining due to the rise of social media and it was also becoming more difficult to recruit new board members and volunteer reporters and editors to do the work as the interests in the community shifted, Mathews said.

Founded in 2005, The Forum stopped publishing in October 2023. As a nonprofit, the board had to decide what to do with the money left in its bank account and has decided to donate the $3,503.36 as a Local Matcher to the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which publishes InDepthNH.org. That amount can then be doubled by individuals donating up to $1,000 each until Dec. 31 as part of NewsMatch.

Dana van der Bijl, The Forum's board secretary, and Mathews, board treasurer, said in a statement: "Yes, we are making our donation a Local Match for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism's NewsMatch 2025, and would be happy for you to call it The Philbrick-James Forum match."

"For eighteen years, volunteer reporters and editors covered local government meetings, elections, and community events, and published announcements and artist profiles. The Forum received a Knight-Batten Citizen Media Award in Journalism for its work.

"Over time, many readers shifted to social media for instant local updates. The Board of Directors made the difficult decision to stop publishing new material...and are now donating The Forum’s remaining funds to InDepthNH to help it continue the essential work of reporting important and factual state and local news stories,” van der Bijl and Mathews said.

Nancy West, InDepthNH.org's founder and executive editor, said she was surprised and thrilled when Mathews contacted her about the donation.

"We are proud to carry on The Forum's tradition of local news excellence in our reporting. This latest donation as a Local Matcher will mean we can raise much more this year and we are certainly grateful," West said.

"I am sad that The Forum has shuttered, but happy to honor its many years of reporting news and encouraging civic engagement in New Hampshire," West said.

The national funders of NewsMatch will match $15,000 up to $1,000 a person for November and December donations. And we have a record number of Local Matchers this year, now including: The Philbrick-James Forum Match, $3,503.36; the Katy Burns Local Journalism Fund, which is matching $10,000, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which is matching another $15,000; the Clover Hitch Advisors matching $5,000 and the Barr Foundation $2,000.

That means we can double your donations up to a total of $50,503.36 and there is still time to become a Local Matcher! We have until Dec. 31 to raise the full match so please donate here or send a check to New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, 38 Edgewater Drive, Barrington, NH 03825.

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