Tag Archives: journalism
Where the Money Goes
The end of the year fast approaches, with the arrival of 1099s and tax time soon to follow. I am a bit ahead of my usual: I have almost finished inputting my credit card transactions into Quicken. This is proving … Continue reading
On Paying for Local News
Just before Thanksgiving, the Martha’s Vineyard Times announced that as of January 2, 2020, it would be going to a paid-subscription model. This is a big deal. Founded in 1984, the paper has been delivered free to all Vineyard postal patrons … Continue reading
Q is for Questions #AtoZChallenge
With Q drawing closer, not swiftly exactly but steadily, I was drawing — not quite a blank, but I wasn’t inspired. I solicited suggestions from Facebook friends. Quirky, quixotic, query, question, quahaug (aka quahog) . . . All worthy, but still not … Continue reading
N is for Newspapers #AtoZChallenge
I started reading a daily newspaper — the news section, not just the funnies — relatively early in life, when I was around 10. As a preteen and then teenage Arabist I clipped stories about the Middle East, taped or … Continue reading
M is for Mud #AtoZChallenge
Mud season generally comes round in early spring, when thawing earth and April showers turn fields, dirt roads, and back yards into quagmires. (Hmm. Maybe Q is for Quagmire? I won’t know till I get there.) Except this year, when … Continue reading
G is for Grapevine #AtoZChallenge
The Grapevine was the name of a Vineyard weekly that preceded the 1984 birth of the Martha’s Vineyard Times. There was no official connection between the two, but into the 1990s people sometimes referred to the Times as the Grapevine. The connection was … Continue reading
Small-Town Journalism in the ’80s
Guest blogger Eileen Maley was the first Calendar editor of the Martha’s Vineyard Times. I was the second. If it hadn’t been for Eileen, I wouldn’t have wound up at the Times at all: at a West Tisbury town meeting ca. 1987, this woman I … Continue reading
Memorial Day
Memorial Day on Martha’s Vineyard is the quasi-official beginning of “the season,” which is to say the season of crowds, traffic, and unaffordable housing. As elsewhere in the U.S., schools, banks, government offices, and many businesses are closed. Parades are … Continue reading
Focus on Journalism
Twice a week the Vineyard Gazette sends out an e-newsletter that includes links to interesting stories in the current paper and a short editorial commentary. A few weeks ago, the newsletter included an open invitation from publisher Jane Seagrave: the Gazette was holding an “informal … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 