We’ve tried to be more upfront than ever in recent weeks about the challenge facing local news organizations (more about our fundraising drive below). But it’s not the only story we have to tell. In fact, today, we’re sharing some good news.
If you missed our December announcement, the Concord Monitor was selected as a partner newsroom by Report for America, a national nonprofit helping local news organizations like ours find new ways to fund journalism. To do that, Report for America and its donors pay half the salary of a reporter for the first year, and the Monitor works with local institutions to help cover the rest of the cost.
Because of this new partnership, the Monitor will welcome two new reporters in June.
Teddy Rosenbluth will be covering health care and seniors, and Eileen O’Grady will be reporting on education. These two beats are more important than ever.
It’s hard to imagine a time when health care reporting meant more than it does now. Among other topics, Rosenbluth will be writing about COVID-19 and its many impacts, locally and across the state. Her work will also touch on issues facing seniors, who are among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
Rosenbluth has covered science and health care for Los Angeles Magazine, the Santa Monica Daily Press and UCLA’s Daily Bruin, where she was a health editor and later magazine director. Her investigative reporting has brought her everywhere from the streets of Los Angeles to the hospitals of New Delhi. Her work garnered first place for Best Enterprise News Story from the California Journalism Awards, and she was a national finalist for the Society of Professional Journalists Best Magazine Article. She graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology.
The Monitor is currently working with local organizations to fund her position. More details on that soon.
From Pre-K to higher education, our classrooms have been disrupted like never before. This will have a profound impact on how our children learn, how our teachers teach, and how parents can make sense of it all. Our education beat will touch on issues ranging from distance learning to the well-being of our most vulnerable students.
You may recognize O’Grady’s name from her work in covering the Massachusetts court proceedings in the case against former Concord High School teacher Howie Leung. O’Grady is the former managing editor of Scope magazine at Northeastern University in Boston, where she reported on social justice issues, community activism, local politics and the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a native Vermonter and worked as a reporter covering local politics for the Shelburne News and the Citizen. Her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report, The Bay State Banner, and VTDigger. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in politics and French from Mount Holyoke College, where she served as news editor for the Mount Holyoke News from 2017-2018.
Her position is supported by The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
The organization last week announced its placement of 225 journalists in 160 new organizations across 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The two reporters at the Monitor are the only New Hampshire-based positions this year.
This year’s Report for America class was chosen through a highly competitive process. More than 1,800 applications were received, and each news organization selected its reporters from a pool of highly qualified candidates. In short, this collective class represents some of the top young reporters in the industry.
Report for America aims to have 1,000 journalists working in local newsrooms by 2024, and its growth is made possible by long-term financial commitments by supporters like the Knight Foundation.
The Monitor is being aggressive in its pursuit of finding new ways to fund journalism. But one thing that won’t change is our independence. In all conversations with potential funders, we always make clear that their support in no way shapes what stories we pursue or how the stories are reported.
Still, the announcement of our two Report for America additions is bittersweet for us. Concord native Leah Willingham, whose recent work on youth suicide and early onset Alzheimers has been recognized as among the best in New England, is heading to Jackson, Mississippi, where she’ll work for the Associated Press through the Report for America program. Leah has been instrumental in our ongoing coverage of the Concord School District’s response to sexual assault allegations. It’s a story we’ll continue to follow.
We’re a few weeks into our donation drive, and I’m happy to say we’ve passed the $30,000 milestone. If you add in the donation checks we’ve received, we’re nearing $37,000, and our goal is to hit the $100,000 mark within the next few weeks. We think that’s possible. Our sister paper, the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., is closing in on $150,000 in its fundraising drive. So, keep ’em coming, and thank you to all the readers who have been so generous.
You can make a tax-deductible donation by visiting concordmonitor.com. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation by check, please send a check to The Local Media Foundation, P.O. Box 450, Lake City, MI 49651. Please make the check payable to “Local Media Foundation” and include “Concord Monitor” in the memo line. Other donation checks can be sent to the Concord Monitor, PO Box 1177, Concord NH 03302. These checks will not be tax-deductible.
This money will be used to support our news staff as we forge deeper into this unprecedented situation. We’re hopeful that business institutions who consider a local independent news source to be a critical part of a strong community will step forward to help get us through the pandemic. If you’d like to explore ways to contribute, please contact me directly at sleone@cmonitor.com.
And, as always, the best way to support local news is to read local news. Visit concordmonitor.com to find rates for digital-only subscriptions or for home delivery, which includes full digital access.
