The Granite Beat

On this episode of “The Granite Beat,” Julie Hart and Adam Drapcho talk with a group who came together to bolster local news coverage in New Hampshire. Justin Silverman of the New England First Amendment Coalition, Melanie Plenda of the Granite State News Collaborative and Laura Simoes of the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications are partners in the Civic Documenters program, helping train commu...

Beatrice Burack, a junior at Dartmouth College, has been writing articles seen by readers across the state. After interning with the New Hampshire Bulletin, Burack wrote a five-part series about skiing in New Hampshire, from how it was once the capital of alpine skiing in North America to the present state of skiing in low-snow winters as well as a peek into what the future might bring. The Granit...

On this episode of Granite Beat, hosts Julie Hart and Adam Drapcho talk with Melanie Plenda, executive director of the Granite State News Collaborative, and Carol Robidoux, founder and editor of Manchester Ink Link and Nashua Ink Link, New Hampshire's newest outlet, created with the help of the collaborative. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in partnership with The Granite S...

On this episode  of Granite Beat, Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart talk with Anna Brown, executive director, and Mike Dunbar, content editor, for Citizens Count, a nonpartisan nonprofit organized to help Granite Staters make the most of their voting rights. They also host a podcast in the Granite State News Collaborative family, $100 Plus Mileage. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun...

On this episode of Granite Beat, Julie Hirshan Hart and Adam Drapcho talk with Phil Kincaid, for several decades an editor at different New Hampshire news outlets and former executive director of the New Hampshire Press Association, and Kelly Burch, an accomplished freelancer whose work has been featured in many national publications. This editor/reporter team is behind a Granite State News Collab...

On this episode of Granite Beat, Lauren Chooljian, a reporter and producer for New Hampshire Public Radio's document team is a New Hampshire native and graduate of St. Anselm College. Yet she had to stretch her wings a bit after St. A's and spent several years in Chicago with WBEZ. Back in New Hampshire and at NH PR, she caught wind of a bombshell of a story, which earlier this year was turned int...

Readers of Granite State newspapers will likely recognize the name of Mike Cote  as an editor with the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he worked for 11 years. Earlier this year, though, he made a career shift. He left the daily newspaper life for that of monthly periodicals so he could take the role of New Hampshire editor for Yankee Publishing, where he leads the teams behind New Hampshire Maga...

Stephen Porter, one of the two reporters, given the historic assignment of launching a New Hampshire Bureau for the Boston Globe at the beginning of this year, comes on to share his story being in journalism and his insight on the changes within technology and social media.   The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in partnership with The Granite State News Collaborative, of which...

Catherine McLaughlin has just wrapped up her first year as a full time reporter. She started at Laconia Daily Sun immediately after graduating from college. Her first year ended with an investigation into a raft of departures from the Laconia School District. Co-host Julie Hart was also in collaboration with Catherine in editing the story giving Granite Beat twice the inside look.  The Granite Bea...

Reporters Julie Hart and Adam Drapcho talk with Michael Kitch. A historian and a writer, and for many years was the senior reporter for the Laconia Daily Sun, making the happenings of Laconia City Hall as transparent as possible for our readers. Lately, he's been writing for the New Hampshire Business Review, notably covering what might be one of the most important legal questions in the state's h...

On this week’s episode of The Granite Beat we welcome Ann Hermes, who worked for the Christian Science Monitor for 12 years before becoming an independent photographer. Ann produces images that look like postcards from a rapidly changing world, providing images from the Arab Spring, NYC ‘dining sheds’, and one of the few remaining drive-in theaters. Most recently, she has been working on a meta-pr...

On this week’s episode of The Granite Beat we spoke with Amanda Gokee, a reporter with The Boston Globe. When The Globe decided to open a New Hampshire bureau, Amanda’s local credibility and experience at the New Hampshire Bulletin was exactly what they needed to shine a light on what’s happening in the Granite State for local, regional, and national audiences. In her new role she has written abou...

A good photographer is someone who operates their equipment with technical skill, but a great photographer is one who balances that skill with empathy for the scene and people they are photographing. On this week’s episode of The Granite Beat, we speak with Valley News photojournalist Alex Driehaus, who has a portfolio of projects rich with empathy. She has spent time photographing people recoveri...

Journalist and author Bill Donahue's trip to Kenya to report on a cycling team and a legendary runner took an unexpected, and it turns out prescient, turn.  The Granite Beat’s  Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart recently interviewed Donahue where they talked about finding the hidden stories and how to be humble as a journalist working in another country. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Dail...

On this episode of The Granite Beat, Julie and Adam talk with sports journalist Joshua Spaulding. He’s worked 20 years as a sports editor for the Salmon Press, which publishes weekly newspapers throughout central and northern New Hampshire, and currently directs and produces sports coverage for 11 newspapers. Over the years he has chronicled the stories of promising young athletes, some of whom ha...

On this week’s episode of The Granite Beat, Julie and Adam speak with Jason Moon, the journalist behind many intriguing long-form projects at NHPR, such as the Bear Brook true crime podcast that has been downloaded more than 17 million times. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in partnership with The Granite State News Collaborative, of which Laconia is a partner, and The Marl...

On The Granite Beat podcast, Felice Belman, deputy Metro editor for The New York Times, Felice Belman, discusses the differences between legacy newspapers and newer startups, the unique responsibility and resources of a publication like The Times, and the subjective decision-making process for determining which stories to cover. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in partnershi...

From legislative action to government accountability, veteran reporter Annmarie Timmins finds the humanity behind the headlines. On this episode of The Granite Beat hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with New Hampshire Bulletin senior reporter Annmarie Timmins. A native Granite Stater, Annmarie is a homegrown journalist who has taught at both UNH and at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communicat...

On this episode of The Granite Beat, hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Granite State News Collaborative executive director Melanie Plenda. Melanie worked as a staff reporter and freelancer for newspapers in Michigan, New York, New Hampshire and Alaska before taking over at GSNC in 2018 to lead one of the most important recent developments in local journalism.   The Granite Beat, is a pr...

On this episode of The Granite Beat hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Judi Currie, a staff writer for Business New Hampshire Magazine with a broad range of experience in New Hampshire. She has covered topics from across the spectrum for countless newspaper, radio, and television outlets The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in partnership with The Granite State News Co...

On this episode of The Granite Beat hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Leah Todd Lin, New England regional collaborative manager for the nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network, about solutions journalism – what it is, why it’s important, and how it can transcend news from depressing to hopeful for consumers and journalists alike. The Granite Beat, is a project of The Laconia Daily Sun in...

On this episode of The Granite Beat hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Matt Mowry, Executive Editor, and Christine Kerrigan, Chief Creative Officer, of Business New Hampshire Magazine. After many years with the magazine Matt and Christine became its owners last September. They joined us to talk about the transition and about investing in New Hampshire media in the modern day.  PODBEAN: T...

On this episode of The Granite Beat, hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with State House reporter Rick Green. Currently a reporter for The Keene Sentinel, Rick previously spent nearly 20 years with the Associated Press covering Oregon and Oklahoma before coming to New Hampshire where he worked for The Laconia Daily Sun and The Granite State News Collaborative. The Granite Beat, is a project o...

On this episode of The Granite Beat hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Daymond Steer, a general assignment reporter widely recognized and honored in New England, who covers the Mount Washington Valley for the Conway Daily Sun. His unique position allows him to shed light onto the happenings of various small towns in the Valley, telling stories – both critical and lighthearted – that woul...

In this episode of The Granite Beat, hosts Adam Drapcho and Julie Hart speak with Manchester Ink Link founder Carol Robidoux, a veteran journalist who left behind the legacy outlets to create her hyperlocal news website to supply residents with local, reliable, and community-driven stories in a central hub. They discuss some of her recent stories, such as the Harmony Montgomery case, the affordabl...