The Keene Sentinel – News for the Future – Monadnock (2024)

Welcome to News for the Future, our annual fundraising appeal to readers and supporters of The Keene Sentinel. Our goal is to raise $50,000 this year to invest in the work of our journalists and our continued efforts to improve this newspaper. Contributions to this annual effort have led to direct investment in the following:

• The addition, late last year, of Statehouse reporter Rick Green who covers the politics and policies coming out of Concord and makes sense of those for this region.
• The hiring of James Rinker, our digital audience engagement journalist, who monitors our social media interactions to be more responsive to matters raised on these platforms and to make sure we are adding factual, collegial information to sensitive community conversations.
• The inclusion this year of The Sentinel in Trusting News training, a proven process by which we will become more transparent with the public on our reporting methods and practices.
• The recent hiring of Tim Nail, who will cover business and the local economy.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, we first started asking readers for additional support to allow us to provide free, in-depth coverage of COVID-19 and its local impact. The overwhelming response to that appeal was an epiphany of sorts, that we could ask for help in our mission and that readers would step forward. We once considered our readers only as customers; now they are our partners as we work together to expand our journalism and make The Sentinel more helpful. And we are not stopping. Our plans for 2022 include:

• The Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab, an ambitious Solutions Journalism approach exploring many of the health care access challenges this region experiences. We launched this lab in February and have produced several stories and columns helping folks meet their health care needs better.
• In conjunction with this lab, we plan a major health fair in November that will feature newsmakers, screenings, presentations and more. We are learning a great deal though our lab – time to share and collaborate.
• We will reach new audiences, those of color and those underserved. Our plan here is to partner with local nonprofits and groups to get our news in front of more people.This region continues to change; we need to be more inclusive in our reporting and to whom we tell our stories.
• More Solutions Journalism stories, which identify problems to solve and then find those individuals, institutions and communities who are having success. We’ve done two series so far using this problem-fixing approach. Expect a half-dozen more from us this year.

If you are interested in giving, please join; click on the donate button and make a contribution. You are

supporting journalists who connect you to your community, who watch your tax dollars, who give you perspective on the local economy and government affairs, and who tell the story of the Monadnock Region.

I thank you for your time and your belief in the journalists at The Sentinel.

Sincerely,

Terrence L. Williams
President & COO
twilliams@keenesentinel.com

Want to give offline? Please make your check out to The Keene Sentinel (Memo: News for the Future) and mail it to The Keene Sentinel, 60 West St., Keene, NH 03431

• We reached our match goal, but we are not slowing down!

  

  Thanks to the generosity of more than 40 donors, we were able to meet our kick-off goal of matching $5,500 from donors in the first 24 hours of our News for the Future campaign. Thank you.
  We’re not slowing down, though.If you have yet to contribute, I invite you to consider a gift to help us bring you more local news, such as the work shown in our2022 Community Impact Report.

  Again, thank you for the support and trust in the work of the journalists at The Sentinel.

  Sincerely,

  Terrence L. Williams
  President & COO

• Over 25% towards our goal!

  In just 9 days, we’ve hit our first milestone: 25% of our goal has been raised. Thank you!

  Your donation helps support your community. I joined The Sentinel staff this past January, and donors like you make the work I do possible. I’m able to connect with our readers and get them the information about what’s happening in their community through my work with our social media at The Sentinel. Here are the other initiatives we’re currently pursuing to help support this region:

  • The inclusion this year of The Sentinel in Trusting News training, a proven process by which we will become more transparent with the public on our reporting methods and practices.
  • The hiring of two new reporters: Tim Nail, who will cover business and the local economy, and Hunter Oberst, who will cover city government.
  • The creation of a housing website that will help connect those struggling with homelessness to resources in the region.

  I hope you’ll join me in supporting the mission of local journalism through a donation to The Sentinel’s News for the Future campaign if you haven’t yet, and I thank you for your continued support and trust in the work that we do.

  

  Sincerely,

  James Rinker
  Digital Community Engagement Journalist