From the ashes of one neighborhood newspaper arises another.
The Northwest Courier, which launched online on April 29, aims to fill the void left by The Current Newspapers, which officially stopped publication last month after a long financial struggle. News startups aren’t uncommon in 2019, but what is rare is the nascent company’s plan to print a physical newspaper.
The Current, which served a large swath of Northwest DC and marked its 50th anniversary in November 2017, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2018 before switching to Chapter 7 liquidation on May 22. The newspaper chain, owned by Davis Kennedy since 1994, was burdened by more than $1 million in outstanding debts. Though its demise was rife with drama, unfilled promises and missing paychecks, the paper’s absence leaves a hole in local news coverage for Northwest DC — which the Courier is stepping into.
Led by former Current employees Brendan Martin and Kaleel Weatherly, The Courier plans for a weekly print edition (like The Current) along with an up-to-the-minute website and social media presence (like The Current tried to do in recent years).
“We’re not trying to go all online or all in print,” editor-in-chief Kaleel Weatherly said in an interview with The DC Line. “We want to have a healthy balance, so that everybody from the Northwest region of DC will have a chance to read our content — whether they’re newspaper-first people or online-first people.”
Martin — The Courier’s owner and publisher, who for now is self-funding the venture — said they are working toward a June 26 print date, though that’s not yet set in stone.
At The Current, the “writing was kind of on the wall,” said Martin, the paper’s former director of advertising, who joined in March 2017. So he began conceptualizing what would become the Courier a little more than a year ago. He officially left The Current in November 2018, and Weatherly, who had been the Current’s news editor and director since July of that year, followed suit in December. In mid-February, Martin approached Weatherly about the new project.
Assistant editor Necole Jackson rounds out the Courier’s full-time staff; other reporters are working on a freelance basis.
The DC Line also has informal ties to The Current: its founder and editor, Chris Kain, served as The Current’s managing editor for 26 years, leaving in December 2017, a month before the company initially filed for bankruptcy. Kain launched The DC Line last June as an online-only outlet that covers local news for the entire District — not just Northwest. A number of former Current employees have been involved with the site, which operates as a nonprofit. (During the startup phase, it is operating as a fiscally sponsored organization under the DC nonprofit Day Eight.)
With The Northwest Courier, Martin and Weatherly noted that local business coverage is a priority.
“The goal for us really is to serve the community,” Martin said. “We want to provide a platform for them to tell us what they think is important in how we report things. And unlike The DC Line — you all are nonprofit, we’re for-profit — so, in that vein, helping out local businesses and giving them a platform to reach their customers.”
Weatherly added that the restaurant scene in Northwest is a crucial area of interest. “DC has become a foodie city,” he said. “And every time there’s a new restaurant opening or a new bar or cafe, we want to be on that because people in Northwest really care about different businesses that help the economy in DC.”
However, Martin says the paper won’t refrain from critical coverage of businesses. “We don’t want to obviously only cover the good stuff,” he said. “I think that our aim is to help and inform. But if something happens and citizens are angry or there is some type of opposition that is newsworthy, we obviously will not shy away from covering that.”
The Current placed a priority on extensive coverage of Northwest’s advisory neighborhood commissions, and The Courier plans to do likewise, with reports from recent meetings already appearing on its website. Weatherly also wants to give particular attention to local neighborhood association meetings and high school sports, which he sees as undercovered.
It’s no secret that local newspapers have been hit hardest by the digital transition of the last three decades: the circulation of daily newspapers has been in decline since 1990, and average circulation for alt-weeklies has been falling sharply in recent years. After serving Montgomery County for almost 60 years, The Gazette — owned by The Washington Post Co. since 1992 — closed in June 2015.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 69 percent of DC area residents follow news somewhat or very closely; but only 16 percent of area respondents actually paid for local news in the last year. (That’s still two points higher than the nationwide 14 percent who said they’ve paid for local news.)
Fewer and fewer local newspapers are able to depend exclusively on print advertising revenues, though newspapers in wealthy neighborhoods like many of the areas served by The Current surely fare better. The Courier plans to rely on a combination of digital and print advertising, according to Martin, who said he believes local businesses will provide enough revenue to fund operations. Like The Current, The Courier will be a free product, offering bulk delivery as well as some home delivery. Martin expects a circulation of between 40,000 and 50,000.
Meanwhile, The Current has shut down despite no formal announcement from its management. The president and publisher, David Ferrara, did not respond a request for comment.
On May 22, a judge approved the court-appointed trustee’s motion to change The Current’s bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 without so much as a hearing. The Current — which ceased “editorial operations” on May 10, according to an email sent that afternoon by editorial director Kate Michael to freelancers — agreed to the bankruptcy conversion and is to be completely liquidated. The DC Public Library recently received a donation from Kennedy of the newspapers’ back issues stretching back to the 1990s, as well as bound books with copies from its first quarter century. The Current’s Twitter account (@currentnewsdc) was shut down last week; the website and Facebook page remain in place, with a report on a Ward 3 meeting on affordable housing as the final story.
How can I send $?