New Hampshire newspapers hit hard by COVID-19 fallout

By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org

Saying they are “accelerating our move into the future,” The Telegraph of Nashua is moving online and ending its print publication except for the Sunday edition every week starting immediately, Monday April 27.

Under the headline “The Telegraph ushers in new era for local news,” the newspaper made the announcement Sunday and promised “The Sunday Telegraph newspaper is and will remain the region’s best and most complete source for news and advertising.

“While we will continue to showcase the people and news of Nashua and indeed the state in our traditional full print Sunday edition, we at The Telegraph are moving to online, mobile and text notification news during the week.”

Publisher Heather Henline said: “We look forward to continuing that legacy of quality in both print and online as The Telegraph ushers in this new era amid COVID-19 and best serving readers and advertisers at a time when the need for real-time access to reporting is critical to our community.

“The Telegraph and news industry as a whole are having to adapt like so many businesses as we continue to provide service to our customers,” Henline said. Ogden Newspapers of Wheeling, West Virginia, owns The Telegraph.

The Telegraph is the first daily newspaper in New Hampshire to make the transition to what some experts see as inevitable for some local dailies, but it likely won’t be the last. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought some businesses and much of the advertising that has always financed newspapers to a standstill. And many local newspapers were struggling financially before COVID-19.

Other New Hampshire newspapers have taken steps to tighten their belts and two, the Concord Monitor and the Valley News, both owned by Newspapers of New England, have launched fundraising campaigns.

Read full story here on InDepthNH.org