O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
Whether the candidates you voted for won or lost, the issues you cared about before election day are still issues today. Your concerns and worries might not be solved by dictates from the Statehouse or Oval Office — no matter who is in it.
So many of the big decisions that impact your pocketbook, your family and your community get made in planning committees, school board meetings, and Statehouse hearing rooms across New Hampshire. And sadly, those decisions are often made in front of empty rooms save for a lone local news reporter.
National and cable news are not going to cover these decisions. You won’t know about them without local news reporters.
Local journalism is a critical part of the civic infrastructure holding up democracy. Like solid roads and water pipes in your neighborhood, our local information systems need to be strong and sustainable.
The local news partners in the Granite State News Collaborative have set aside generations of deeply ingrained competition to do our part to keep that infrastructure strong. We may all sit in different newsrooms but we share a common belief: our communities will not survive and thrive without trusted information.
In just five years, collectively we’ve distributed more than 7,000 shared stories — information you might not have found otherwise — to every corner of the state. We’ve learned how to pull together and co-report on elections. We’ve shared information and tips with each other — and even shared reporters to help fill news deserts.
We’ve seen the good those efforts have done in our communities and want to make sure that our communities always have these resources available to them.
That is why we are ready to take the next step: creating the New Hampshire Community News Fund.
The fund aims to strengthen local journalism by increasing the number of reporters across the state, supporting The Collaborative’s operations, and adding valuable editorial resources to the local news ecosystem. It also focuses on promoting sustainability and innovation in newsrooms while fostering greater community understanding, adaptability, and media literacy.
In short, we want to make sure you have more information you can trust, not less, well into the future.
This effort is not about saving individual outlets. It is about shoring up our civic infrastructure to grow local news and the connections local news fosters in our communities.
Now is the time for action. Local news is not dead. We are here. With you as our partner, we are willing to work hard to ensure that we stay here.
If you would like to be a part of our coalition, reach out, share this message with the interested and willing and/or donate to our pilot collective fundraising effort. You will have the option of donating to individual news outlets, the NH Community News Fund, or both!
Now through the end of the year, individual donations up to $1,000 and total donations of $15,000 to the fund will be matched through Newsmatch, a national fundraising campaign.
For more information contact Melanie Plenda, GSNC Executive Director, melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org.
Participating partners include: 603 Diversity Magazine, Business NH Magazine, The Concord Monitor, Granite State News Collaborative, The Laconia Daily Sun, Manchester Ink Link, The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nashua Ink Link, NH Business Review, New Hampshire PBS and NH Public Radio.