At a time when communities across the country are losing access to local news, the South Berwick Reporter represents the future of journalism, according to a longtime editor of Foster’s Daily Democrat.
“Nonprofit news sources are the greatest hope to save a dying industry,” said Mary Pat Rowland, managing editor at Fosters for 43 years, until 2018. “Non-profit news sources have a great opportunity to skip the click bait and do impactful work to inform the communities they serve.”
Rowland spoke at Spring Hill to about 50 people at a recent kickoff party for the South Berwick Reporter, a new all-volunteer online news source.
The non-profit news organization has been covering official town and school board meetings in South Berwick since last spring and posting them on Facebook. This was the first time in more than six years residents of South Berwick have had news coverage of town business.
Besides launching the website at southberwickreporter.org, the event marked the start of the organization’s effort to recruit donors as well as subscribers, who will receive weekly news updates. Sponsors and other contributors will help defray the cost of the website and media insurance.
In her talk, Rowland described the decimation of local journalism nationally and in the Seacoast area. Citing the New York Times, she noted that across the country about two newspapers close every week.
At its height in the late 1990s, Foster’s had 45 employees on the news staff and seven bureaus across southern New Hampshire and York, Maine, including a Statehouse bureau, Rowland said. When she retired, the paper had two reporters in its entire coverage area.
“During the last 20 years of my career I witnessed what I sadly call the great unraveling,” she said. “The upheaval from the transformation to a digital world was every bit as monumental as the Gutenberg invention of the printing press.”
Corporate chains laid off thousands of journalists and “with fewer reporters, content diminished and critical investigative watchdog reporting was all but halted.”
That, Rowland said, is where the South Berwick Reporter and other nonprofit news sources come in.
South Berwick hasn’t had a reporter at Town Council or any other meetings since about six years ago, when Mark Pechenik of South Berwick was a correspondent for Foster’s. Pechenik now volunteers for the Reporter, covering the council.
Alex Kingsbury, New York Times editor and 1999 graduate of Marshwood High School, was scheduled to speak as well, but cancelled due to illness. In his place, remarks were offered by John Rudolph of South Berwick, editor of Feet in 2 Worlds and formerly with Monitor Radio; and photojournalist Ralph Morang.
The all-volunteer staff of the South Berwick Reporter was introduced at the party by emcee Karen Eger, a reporter. In addition to Eger, the former library director, the staff includes four former Foster’s employees – Zelda Kenney, Mark Pechenik, Nora Irvine and Amy Miller – as well as musician and songwriter Susie Burke, writer Mary Elizabeth Everett, Rudolph, cartoonist John Klossner, and tech coordinator Trish English.
The South Berwick Reporter was started in March 2023 by a group of local citizens. More than 100 articles on town and school business have been posted on its Facebook page since then.
Design of the website was funded by a donation from the South Berwick-Eliot Rotary Club, and initial design work was done by Cecile Williams.
The Reporter was established to offer original content relating to news and current events concerning the town of South Berwick. Its mission is “to provide accurate and relevant news and information about South Berwick in an effort to foster an engaged and informed citizenry,” the website says.
The South Berwick Reporter is the latest addition to the family of 10 local non-profit programs under the fiscal umbrella of SoBo Central. Other programs are the Food Pantry; Keep South Berwick Warm; Hot Summer Nights concert series; Common Ground Tuskegee-South Berwick Sister City project; Home for the Holidays; SmartGrowth South Berwick; South Berwick Cares; and Powderhouse Hill Ski Club. SoBo Central volunteers also host the annual LanternFest.
