About the News Café
Welcome to the News Café, a virtual meeting place exploring the news of the day.
The concept of a news café came to me while I was publisher of The Telegram in Franklin NH. The office of the weekly newspaper was on Central Street in a dual-occupancy building with a brick terrace at the entrance. It occurred me on a pleasantly warm spring day that the terrace would provide a perfect setting for an outdoor café where people passing by could stop for a coffee and pastry. From there my imagination took off: What if we partnered with local restaurants to use the space on a rotating basis, allowing them to showcase their food? What if we arranged with all the newspapers serving the community — the Concord Monitor, the Union Leader, The Citizen, the Andover Beacon — as well as our own Telegram — to place free copies there so people stopping for coffee could also read the news of the day?
This was at the same time I was launching the nonprofit Liberty Independent Media Project to do video documentaries, and I was serving as a board member of Lakes Region Public Access Television. What if I took people aside who were reading the papers at the news café and asked for their thoughts about the news of the day? The comments of those who were willing to be interviewed could be edited into a daily or weekly video that we could broadcast over LRPA’s television channel. Their comments and suggestions could lead to more in-depth news stories in the pages of The Telegram.
Unfortunately, my regular 60- and 80-hour work weeks — serving as a reporter, photographer, editor, and publisher, as well as the one emptying the garbage for the small weekly newspaper — prevented me from ever seriously pursuing the dream of a news café. I would bring up the idea again over the years after selling The Telegram and going to work for The Citizen, the Union Leader, and the Laconia Daily Sun, but nothing ever came of the concept.
Finally, I tried a virtual version of the News Café on the Liberty Project’s website, www.libertymedianh.org. The Liberty Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that relies upon donations and volunteer labor to accomplish its mission, and the News Café provided one more way to raise money to support the project. It brought in a few participants and a few donations, but still never really took off.
I don’t like to give up on what I think are good ideas, so here is the latest incarnation, in the form of a newsletter where, once again, I’ll try to offer some insights into what is happening, while encouraging readers to offer their own insights or questions about the news — or any topic. With any luck, we’ll get some good suggestions for subjects to pursue with in-depth analysis.
So, as we’ve said on the Liberty Project’s virtual News Café, fill your cup with your favorite drink, pull up a chair, and join us. Comment on anything, or suggest a story for us to look into. Let’s make this a true gathering-place at a time when in-person visits are restricted, and continue when things return to normal.