This week, the Current is regrettably saying farewell to one of its co-founders, Will Dowd.
If you know Will — as many of you of course do — you know of his boundless energy, curiosity and love for the town of Marblehead. His unfailing optimism helped fuel the Current from its earliest days. His long history in town gave him a trove of institutional knowledge that was invaluable in informing his coverage of town government affairs. His endless fascination with Marblehead’s history made his stories about some newly discovered relic sing.
So, why say goodbye?
Because unfortunately, at the end of the day, the Marblehead Current is a nonprofit business. To be sure, it is a unique one, given its mission of service to the community. But that status does not relieve the Current of its obligation to balance its books.
In its recent history, the Current has sustained an enterprise that cost approximately $40,000 a month. Through the generosity of our donors and advertisers, we have met that burden — almost. However, along the way, as our bank balance has dipped, the Current’s volunteer board periodically has grudgingly approved drastic temporary measures, like 25% across-the-board pay cuts.
Throughout its existence, a dedicated group of board members and other volunteers have worked feverishly to brighten the Current’s bottom line, organizing house parties and other events, selling advertising, filing grant applications and courting donors.
But after three years of data, we have developed a good sense of our capacity to raise operating revenue from local donors and other sources, especially during a time of broad financial uncertainty.
Those limits could no longer sustain a newsroom that, as best we can tell, has been significantly larger than those of the other startup nonprofit news organizations that have popped up across eastern Massachusetts.
The board offered Will the opportunity to continue writing several stories a week for the Current. He was not the only staff member asked to sacrifice to stabilize the Current’s finances. Unfortunately, in Will’s case, the numbers just did not work out.
We, of course, will continue to work for brighter days, as we turn over every rock in search of funding. We have — and will continue to — pursue every grant that we might think is a “fit,” and we will hope that one day the philanthropic community will have a greater zeal for funding local journalism. In our view, local news is a rising tide that can lift many other boats. Now, we just need the funders to share that vision.
We are aware of a burgeoning effort to pass a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature that would create an independent public grantmaking body to support local journalism and civic information needs, patterned after the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. The New Jersey consortium has distributed more than $10 million to more than 60 organizations focused on local news and information. If Beacon Hill sees fit to create such a body here, perhaps that will offer some help down the road.
Until the cavalry arrives, however, the bills — including the one that recently got 14% higher due to increases in U.S. Postal Service rates — have to get paid. That has, unfortunately, meant that devastatingly difficult choices have had to be made.
We believe those difficult choices leave the Current well positioned to stand the test of time. If you have been enjoying the Current and have some time and talent to help ensure that it does, in fact, endure, please reach out to info@marbleheadnews.org. We likely have a volunteer role for you.
In the meantime, we are going to get back to work providing the residents of Marblehead the independent journalism they deserve — a mission that the founders of the Current, Ed Bell, Jessica Barnett, David Moran, Leigh Blander, Kris Olson and, yes, Will Dowd — deeply believed in and continue to believe in. Thanks for reading — and thank you, Will.
The Current Editorial Board
The members of the Current’seditorial board are Bob Peck, chairman of the Current; Virginia Buckingham, president of the Current's board of directors; board member Brian Birke, Current editorial staff member Kris Olson, and Joseph P. Kahn, a retired Boston Globe journalist.
[…] Current recently published an editorial thanking Dowd for his work but adding that its nonprofit status “does not relieve the Current of its obligation to […]