Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | May 13, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 9 BY KATHERINE HAMILTON Special to WBJ A mid the Worcester Tele- gram & Gazette's decline in coverage and size, smaller publications have tried to fill the gap in Central Massachusetts' journalism. But they've all run into the same problem: Making a profit as a media organization is not easy. While some like Spectrum News 1, the cable news outlet of Charter Communi- cations operating out of Worcester, are remaining stable or even growing, others, like the Worcester Phoenix and Worces- ter Sun, have since shut down. "It's just like everybody has declined," said former T&G executive editor Dave Nordman, who spent 20 years at the region's paper of record. He mentioned the decline in local coverage at radio station WTAG, the consolidation of Worcester Magazine into the T&G, and the loss of three MassLive reporters in the past two years. Efforts to make up for the T&G's shrinking newsroom have been thwart- ed by the challenge of profitability. For the short-lived Worcester Sun, it was a matter of audience interest and insuffi- cient subscriptions that caused the paper to fold, said former T&G reporter Mark Henderson, who founded the Worcester Sun. For the Phoenix, which stopped covering Worcester in 2000, it was pri- marily a lack of local advertising support. About 1,500 alternative media orga- nizations (those not considered their community's paper of record) operate throughout the United States, according to Northwestern University's 2023 report on the state of news. But it's not easy to make the business model work: the num- ber of new local media startups estab- lished since 2018 is equal to the number folded in that same period. Amid this reckoning, new media busi- ness models are emerging, testing different streams of revenue, as well as the traditional frameworks of journalistic standards that have histori- cally defined coverage at institutions like the T&G. ese include donation-based nonprofits and open-bias blogs, which bring questions about the objectivity and quality of the news in a new era of journalism. New media models Among the media outlets launched over the past decade, one of the fast- est-growing is Bill Shaner's Substack blog Worcester Sucks and I Love It. Shaner, who le his job as a Worcester Magazine reporter in 2020 amid its consolidation, has increased his readership three-fold over the past three years, which includes nearly 700 paid subscribers, according to audience data he shared. Shaner's blog takes a definitive step away from the way newspapers have traditionally operated. It relies on Sha- ner's robust social media following and commitment to accountability journal- ism, with an open bias and casual tone to allure paid subscribers without having to rely on advertising. He sees his role as providing a level of in-depth jour- nalism missing in the Worcester media landscape. Becoming the Fourth Estate New publications and media business models are emerging in Worcester, raising concerns about bias, independence, and long-term financial viability Continued on next page The new Worcester media, part 2 This two-part series examines the ongoing fragmentation of the news media industry in Central Massachusetts. This second part digs into the challenges of smaller publications and emerging business models, while part one starting on page 6 chronicles the systematic reduction of the largest newsroom in the region. Bill Shaner, author of Worcester Sucks & I Love It PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT Cara Berg Powers, a media professor at Clark University, launched the Worcester Community Media Foundation at Rewind Video to provide mentorships and programs for local journalists. The new Worcester media: Part 2

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