Welcome to our second Report to Readers, a year-end effort that shares what we’ve done in the past year and what we’re planning for the year ahead.
Here are some of the highlights:
Best in New Hampshire
One of the highlights of the year for the Ledger-Transcript team was being recognized as the best overall publication in New Hampshire in 2024 at the annual New Hampshire Press Association Distinguished Journalism Awards in June. The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript received the top prize in the state for General Excellence, a category that included both daily and non-daily entrants.
The General Excellence award was given based on a selection of three editions from 2024. For the Ledger-Transcript, these were the March 5 issue, which was the preview to March Town Meeting and included a special section designed to give residents of ConVal towns the information they needed as they prepared to vote on an article that could lead to the closing of four elementary schools; the Sept. 24 issue, which covered three fatal crashes in the region within 16 hours; and Dec. 31 issue, the paper’s 175th anniversary edition.
Judges’ comments on the award called the editions “jam-packed with local news,” noting the Town Meeting coverage as an “expansive and exhaustive look at a critical school vote,” and the report of the fatalities as “sober, but delicate.”
These awards are a reflection of a talented and hard-working team made possible by continued support from our subscribers and advertisers. We feel that our communities are stronger and healthier with a strong, independent community newspaper, and you help us fulfill that mission.
New in 2025
This year brought a tremendous amount of internal change for the Ledger-Transcript’s newsroom team. This past summer, we implemented technological upgrades that make our website faster and will make our journalism stronger and our business more capable of meeting the needs of readers.
Our website: We have a faster website with a new design that gives our reporters and editors access to digital tools that allow us to present stories that look great and are easy to read on a computer or phone. We can do more with photos, graphics and videos and have only scratched the surface of what’s possible. We’ve made it easier for you to pass along news tips or share perspectives through letters. If you prefer to listen to our articles rather than read them, you can hit the play button at the top of each story.
Our app: You can download the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript app on your iPhone, Android phone or tablet. You can also see a version of it on ledgertranscript.com (click E-Edition in the top-right corner.) Our app allows you to follow our coverage as soon as it’s posted. You can adjust the font size or the background color. You can save articles for later and set certain categories as favorites. You can also use the app to read the e-paper, which is a digital replica of the newspaper. Many digital readers still love the look and feel of the print newspaper, and this gives you all the benefits without the need to wait for the mail or go out to pick one up. And every print subscription comes with full access to website, app and e-edition content.
Staff changes
With housing availability and affordability a real issue, and in an industry in which fewer people have the skills and appetite for community journalism, we have had some challenging months. The team’s hard work and commitment, and generous contributions from local writers and columnists, have gotten us through. We have some new team members aboard (see accompanying story) and look forward to being fully staffed in the near future.
Solutions Journalism
In 2025, the news team was selected to participate in a program to continue our work with the Solutions Journalism Network. During the nine-month program, our team framed a solutions journalism project, “Preserving Our Region” that will spotlight how local towns, businesses, and individuals are protecting our environment and building a stronger, more resilient region. The year-long series will highlight practical, replicable solutions with real impact and will also include a youth engagement project in local schools, in collaboration with the Franklin Pierce University climate action group and a region-wide contest awarding funds for new environmental projects. We are securing sponsors and will launch the series in early 2026.
Ahead in 2026
Our website: We’re still working on some pieces that aren’t quite finished, and still adapting to new ways of thinking about presenting the news. We are restoring the electronic edition archives, migrating newsletters from an old platform to the new, and learning how to use the new system to bring you more news and information. In the coming year, we’ll add audio and video to tell stories, we’ll be experimenting with data visualization for those who prefer charts and graphs and interactive content over narratives, and more.
Other new products: In addition to the Solutions Journalism series, we will introduce more voices in curated newsletters so our editor and reporters can add context to the articles we present. We will continue to report on our state and towns, continue our coverage of arts and entertainment and introduce a new weekly newsletter featuring upcoming arts and entertainment events.
Listening: We plan to hear from as many readers as possible in the coming year. The more we listen, the better we can be at meeting your needs and interests. You’ll see more quick surveys, giving you the opportunity to tell us, right as you’re reading a story, whether you liked it. And this year, we’ll form a reader advisory board, a group of community members who we will select through an application process. Of course, we’ll continue to host Community Conversations with the Monadnock Center for History and Culture and attend community events so you can meet the team behind the words.
Use of AI
It’s hard to overstate how big an impact artificial intelligence will have on the world around us. In some cases, it will make us all infinitely more capable. In other ways, it has the potential to erode some of our society’s bedrock principles. At the Ledger-Transcript, we are starting to incorporate AI into our daily processes, but only with human oversight at every step. That means we’re using AI to do things like transcribe interviews, gather information from meetings we could not attend, dig through documents, format information like police logs and make our stories easier to find in Google searches. We are not using AI to write stories, and we are not using it to create images. We have an AI policy at the bottom of our website. Nothing is more important to us than building and maintaining the trust of our reporting. We continue to hold all our journalism to the same editorial standards of accuracy, fairness and accountability.
Community Partnerships
We’ll continue to expand our base of Community Partners. Below are those who funded some of our reporting over the past year. Supporters have no input on the stories you read. Our editorial independence policy puts the selection, writing and editing of articles solely into the hands of Ledger-Transcript journalists.
Savings Bank of Walpole: They’ve supported our Hometown Heroes series for three years. This monthly series highlights the work local residents are doing to make the Monadnock region a better place.
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: They help support our Statehouse reporter. We share this position with our sister paper, the Concord Monitor.
Report For America: This national nonprofit’s mission is to help news organizations like ours add to their reporting staff. Our Statehouse coverage beat receives support from this group and we partner with Report for America and its parent nonprofit, The GroundTruth Project, to receive tax-deductible donations and foundation grants without needing to establish our own charitable entity.
Microspec: Our solutions journalism Career and Technical Education series sponsor, Microspec supported a four-part series last spring focused on the role of the region’s CTE programs and proposals to expand CTE programs at ConVal and Conant Middle High School.
Teleflex: one of our 175th anniversary sponsors, Teleflex supported a series that looked at the history of the original Crotched Mountain Ski Area, which concluded in January, wrapping up our anniversary celebration. We thank all 175th anniversary sponsors: Hutter Construction, Belletetes, Monadnock Community Hospital and Bellows-Nichols Insurance, for their support.
Our advertisers: Advertisers trust us to bring their messages to our readers in print and online, and they use our digital solutions, from newsletter advertising to targeted email and targeted video, to reach prospective clients. Advertising connects the business community to our readers and funds our operations.
And you: Occasionally, we ask for donations from our most dedicated readers. And you’ve always stepped up. That money goes exclusively to helping our news staff report. Contributions have funded our Statehouse coverage, and recent contributions will support our “Preserving the Region” solutions journalism project.
Thank you for being a reader. Every subscription makes a difference. We couldn’t do it without you.
Heather McKernan
Publisher
The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript started in 1849. The Ledger-Transcript is owned by Newspapers of New England, a family-run company that includes the Concord Monitor (Concord, N.H.) Valley News (West Lebanon, N.H.), the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Mass), the Recorder (Greenfield, Mass.) and the Athol Daily News (Athol, Mass.)