Felice Belman
Concord Monitor staff
- Position
- Editor
- Email Felice Belman
- Biography
Felice Belman is editor of the Concord Monitor, where she has worked, off and on, for more than 20 years as an editor and, before that, a state politics reporter. Among her brief forays elsewhere, she also spent two years as Maryland politics editor at the Washington Post.
Felice is the co-editor, with Mike Pride, of The New Hampshire Century, a collection of profiles of 100 notable state figures from the 20th century. She twice served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes. Felice graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1988.
Most recent comments by Felice Belman
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By Felice Belman - 01/23/2012 - 10:02 pm
Surely Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker (not to mention the Capital Beat columnists) knows which wards are in her district. I took her quote to be quite literal. She said, "I'm a Republican and I don't vote like the Democrats. I was voted a representative because more people in Wards 8, 9 and 10 wanted a Republican in there than they wanted a Democrat." When Blankenbeker was elected, it was the voters of Wards 8, 9 and 10 who helped her. In Ward 4 (also part of her district), there were 5 Democratic candidates in the 2010 race who did better than she did. In other words, if Ward 4 voters had had their way, she wouldn't have won. She owes her victory to residents in Wards 8, 9 and 10. Felice Belman |
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By Felice Belman - 12/23/2011 - 3:18 pm
The endorsements listed were for New Hampshire primary elections -- and I compared them to the state primary election results. Our general election endorsements were often different: In 2008, in the general election, we endorsed Barack Obama, who won in November. So -- seven general elections, 3 winners, 4 losers. |
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By Felice Belman - 12/22/2011 - 6:51 pm
The complaint about Bishop Brady sports coverage was, coincidentally, published the same day that the Sports section featured a centerpiece story by Sports Editor Sandy Smith about the Brady boys' hockey victory over Concord High School, along with a dramatic game photo by John Tully. The Monitor covers scads of teams at scads of high schools in the region. While Concord High is always first among equals (after all, it's the school where more of our readers send their children and the school more of them support with their taxes), Smith and the Sports Department work hard to pay attention to high schools throughout central New Hampshire: Hopkinton, John Stark, Merrimack Valley, Bow, Pembroke, Belmont, PIttsfield, Hillsboro-Deering, Franklin, Winnisquam, Kearsarge, Brady and beyond. Most days, there's a lot to cover. On Wednesday, for instance, the top story was about the Concord boys' basketball game against Spaulding. Inside the section were write-ups of 10 more local games. On Tuesday, the main story was about the Bishop Brady girls' basketball game against Kearsarge. Inside were 11 more game write-ups. Every athlete and every team can't be in the spotlight each day, but over the course of the season our goal is to give readers a good taste of the local high school sports scene. Felice Belman, |
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By Felice Belman - 09/22/2011 - 4:02 pm
Did we want a reaction? Well, yes. We're hoping to get a reaction from readers from every article and photograph we publish -- if the news or the photographs are boring to our readers, we're surely not doing our job. We hope, of course, that reaction is positive -- that our coverage gives you something to think about, teaches you something about your community, tells you something you wouldn't know otherwise, inspires you to get involved in civic affairs. In this case, we chose to publish the photo despite anticipating some negative reaction. It seemed worthwhile to me because of the news value. And, eventually, I guess, it did give readers something to talk about.. |
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By Felice Belman - 09/02/2011 - 7:07 am
No, I didn't mean to imply that the Monitor had launched an investigation into to road project along Route 3 -- only that we have spelled out the scope of the project for readers many times since it began. The city has made clear from the get-go that it would be slow-going -- and it has. |
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By Felice Belman - 09/01/2011 - 4:27 pm
In fact, the Monitor has written extensively about this project over the years. Here's a good story that gives you the basics: http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/215365/route-3-reconstruction-begi... |
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By Felice Belman - 08/24/2011 - 3:18 pm
Will the Monitor run a front-page article on every person who announces? Well, probably not. When the filing period opens, we will check in with the school district clerk regularly and post notices in the Monitor about who's running. When a candidate is particularly notable, it will likely become a full-fledged story. Whether that story lands on the front page has a lot to do with what else is in the news that day. Once the field is set, we will interview all the candidates and write stories based on those interviews. If there are public campaign events -- a debate, for example -- we'll cover those, too. Barbara Higgins's candidacy made the front page because she is a well-known figure in town and because she left her job amid controversy: Many students were angry about it, Higgins herself planned to fight for her job before deciding to resign, and neither she nor the school district has provided a public explanation. If she wins a seat on the school board, she will essentially be the boss of the folks who recommended her for dismissal. Seems like a pretty interesting news story to me. Of course, even without that drama, Higgins's candidacy might have made the front page. Given her long tenure with the school district, she's well-known in town and definitely of interest to many readers. Felice Belman |
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By Felice Belman - 08/09/2011 - 8:08 pm
The editorials in the Monitor represent the views of the editorial board: the publisher, the editor, the managing editor and the editorial writer. In the newspaper, they carry no byline. Online, for technical reasons that are over my head, they say "Monitor staff." Most of the editorials are written by our editorial writer Ralph Jimenez. Typically, he writes five per week and I write one. Occasionally there is a pinch hitter. (While Ralph was on vacation earlier this summer, for instance, I prevailed upon Mike Pride, my predecessor, to write a couple. He's fast!) Katy Burns is a longtime Sunday Monitor opinion columnist. She's a freelancer -- and her work always has her name on it. Ben Leubsdorf is our city hall reporter and Ray Duckler is our news columnist. Their work, too, always comes with a byline. |
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By Felice Belman - 08/04/2011 - 6:44 pm
I think the joke goes like this: A priest, a rabbi and a duck walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, "What is this, some kind of a joke?" |
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By Felice Belman - 08/03/2011 - 3:21 pm
Dear Mrs. Bean, Thanks for your thoughts. Your idea about a quarterly local food publication is interesting. Hillary Nelson's regular "Home Plate" column on the Food page focuses specifically on cooking and eating locally -- and I know it's a reader favorite. Her piece about New Hampshire blueberries in today's edition is a lovely example. As for "Relish" -- you compared it to a women's magazine. Turns out, those are still pretty popular with some readers. I think an even better comparison is to the USA Weekend magazine that appears in the Sunday Monitor -- there's nothing local about it, but it's of interest to some readers. We tested this a few years back and found that many subscribers were hopping mad when we considered eliminating it! In any case, the new magazine is not a substitute for local coverage, just a complement to it. Our goal is to provide a little bit of everything, with the hope that everyone will find something they like. Felice Belman |
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By Felice Belman - 07/31/2011 - 11:43 am
Here's one more: a new piece from Alec on the new governor of Michigan, from The New Republic: http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/89644/michigan-governor-ric... |
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In fact, I am the one who decided to publish this letter. I did think a long while before including it, for just the reason you point to: the writer's drawing a connection between Speaker Bill O'Brien and Adolf Hitler. This is certainly not the sort of language we allow writers to use when criticizing other Monitor letter-writers, for instance, or the private citizens whose names appear in our stories. Nor do I think a Hitler comparison is necessarily the most persuasive argument -- or, frankly, the newest. But I do think readers should get a lot of leeway in criticizing our elected representatives. After all, they're there on our behalf. Sometimes, alas, strong criticism comes with the job.
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