New Hampshire

Local newsrooms in New Hampshire raise $77,000 – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published

2 months ago

December 26, 2025

Local newsrooms in New Hampshire raise ,000 – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

When readers across New Hampshire clicked “donate,” mailed checks or dropped contributions off at local newsrooms this fall, most weren’t thinking about fundraising totals or matching formulas. They were thinking about school board meetings, town budgets, lake health, housing shortages — and the reporters who keep showing up to cover them.

That collective show of support has added up. Partners in the Granite State News Collaborative have raised more than $77,000 to support local newsrooms across the state through a coordinated fundraising campaign that combines community donations with national matching funds.

These types of campaigns have been instrumental in helping local news organizations sustain and sometimes even grow their reporting capacity.

“Since the pandemic days of 2020, news consumers across the state have been incredibly generous to their local news organizations,” said Monitor publisher Steve Leone, who is also a board member of the Granite State News Collaborative. “Many of the same people give year after year because I think they see that the money is being put to good use by the partner news organizations across the state.”

The shared donation drive marks another way that news organizations that have competed fiercely for generations have, in recent years, found ways to work together in support of readers in our state.

“The newscape in New Hampshire is constantly shifting, as are people’s news consumption habits,” said Carol Robidoux, editor and publisher of the Ink Link News Group. “Anything we can do collectively as professional journalists to reinforce the enduring value of journalism in the context of a vibrant and connected community is important to us as a news organization.”

You can donate to the Ledger-Transcript, any other partner news organization and the Collaborative itself by visiting the donation page on ledgertranscript.com.

As of this week, the overall campaign has generated nearly $60,000 in direct contributions from readers and supporters, with additional matching funds bringing the total to $77,848.59 so far. The fundraiser runs through midnight on Dec. 31, and additional matching dollars may still be unlocked before it closes.

The campaign is part of the New Hampshire Community News Fund, a shared initiative created by the Granite State News Collaborative to help strengthen local journalism across the state. GSNC is a nonprofit journalism collaborative that brings together newsrooms, higher education institutions, and community partners to support local reporting, share resources, and build sustainable models for news in New Hampshire.

“At its core, this campaign is about people showing up for the newsrooms that show up for them,” the Granite State News Collaborative said in a statement. “Local news is deeply personal. It’s about your town, your school board, your neighbors. Seeing people support this work — not just one outlet, but many — is incredibly meaningful.”

A shared approach to fundraising

Rather than running separate, competing appeals, participating outlets took part in a coordinated campaign supported by shared messaging, marketing tools, and fundraising infrastructure produced by GSNC. Donations came in both online and offline, and were then amplified through matching programs, including national journalism initiatives such as NewsMatch.

For local editors, the campaign’s success has been both affirming and instructive.

“I’m blown away by the support for this campaign, and humbled that many of our readers have given to sustain local journalism,” said Julie Hirshan Hart, editor of the Laconia Daily Sun. “It shows not only that people are reading and consuming local news, but that they place real value on the work we do.”

Robidoux, who is a founding partner of GSNC, said the response reflects a shift in how audiences think about trust.

“What seemed to start as a broad distrust in ‘the media’ has turned into something more specific — people questioning which sources are real, trustworthy, and human-driven,” she said. “The success of this campaign tells me that New Hampshire readers are ready to be more discerning, and that ‘local’ really matters.”

Supporting local reporting

Funds raised through the campaign are distributed back to participating outlets based on donor intent, giving each newsroom flexibility to address its most pressing needs.

At the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, all support we receive will go directly to our “Preserving Our Region” Solutions Journalism project. This year-long effort will spotlight towns, businesses, and residents across the Monadnock region who are making a positive environmental impact. Each story will focus on everyday people achieving real, evidence-backed results — solutions that are practical, replicable, and inspiring. Our goal is to show what’s possible and motivate action to protect what makes this region so special. Support for the project will fund the editorial time and effort needed to produce these stories and share them as widely as possible. In addition to the reporting, the project includes a youth environmental initiative and a contest aimed at sparking new ideas.

For smaller outlets, Robidoux said the added financial stability can be critical.

“Most local news organizations operate with very little margin for error,” she said. “Having even a short runway helps us weather the unpredictables that, unfortunately, can mean shutting down a news operation.”

For the Granite State News Collaborative, the campaign’s impact extends beyond the final tally.

“This is a reminder that people still care deeply about having trustworthy, local reporting in their lives,” the Collaborative said. “When newsrooms work together — and when communities are invited into the process — local journalism can still thrive.”

The fundraiser runs through midnight on Dec. 31.

Participating partners include Business NH Magazine, Concord Monitor, Granite State News Collaborative, Laconia Daily Sun, Manchester Ink Link, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, NH Business Review, NHPBS, NHPR, Nashua Ink Link, and Valley News.

Melanie Plenda is the Executive Director of the Granite State News Collaborative. To learn more about the NH Community News Fund collaborativenh.org/support-the-gsnc.

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. Don’t just read this. Share it with one person who doesn’t usually follow local news — that’s how we make an impact. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire employment law in 2026 – NH Business Review

Published

52 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

New Hampshire employment law in 2026 – NH Business Review

What employers are getting wrong, and how to fix it before it becomes a claim

New Hampshire’s employment law landscape heading into 2026 may not be dramatically different from last year, but the real risks lie in implementation missteps. From the initial setting of wages, to calculating and distributing wages, employers will likely find a specific statute and/or labor regulation governing the transaction. Failure to follow these detailed wage and hour laws can result in significant back wages and other penalties being imposed by the state or federal Department of Labor following an audit. Fortunately, however, this area of employment law is relatively easy to master, once you are familiar with the basics.

Notice compliance

One of the most common pitfalls for employers in New Hampshire is misunderstanding the wage and hour notice requirements under RSA 275 and the related New Hampshire Department of Labor Administrative Rules.

At the time of hire, employers must notify employees in writing of their rate of pay and the day and place of payment. This notice is traditionally delivered to employees by way of an offer letter or some sort of “New Hire Rate of Pay” form. (A sample form is available from the New Hampshire Department of Labor website.) What surprises most employers, however, is that Lab. 803.03(f)(6) also requires employers to request and obtain their employees’ signatures on this written notification of wages, and employers must keep a copy of the signed written notification of wages on file. Further, employers must notify employees in writing during the course of employment of any changes to wages or day of pay prior to such changes taking effect, and the employer must obtain the employee’s signature on this subsequent notification as well. (See RSA 275:49; Lab. 803.03.)

Employers are further required to notify employees in writing, or through a posted notice maintained in a place accessible to employees, of:

• employment practices and policies with regard to vacation pay, sick leave and other fringe benefits.

• deductions made from the employee’s payroll check, for each period such deductions are made.

• information regarding the deductions allowed from wage payments under state law. (RSA 275:49; Lab. 803.03.)

Policies regarding vacation and sick leave should inform employees whether or not the employer will “cash out” unused time at year end or at the end of employment, and if so, under what terms. Again, if any changes are made to vacation pay, sick leave and other fringe benefits during the course of employment (all of which are considered “wages” under New Hampshire law), employers must request and obtain their employees’ signatures on the written notification of the change, and must keep a copy of the signed form on file. (Lab. 803.03.) Importantly, notification by way of pay stub alone is not sufficient, and, these requirements apply to both increases and decreases in pay.

Two-hour minimum (reporting pay)

Another frequently overlooked obligation is New Hampshire’s two-hour minimum reporting pay requirement. Under RSA 275:43-a, non-exempt employees who report to work but are sent home early must generally be paid for at least two hours. Weather-related closures, client cancellations or operational slowdown days can trigger this rule. Employers should also note that the New Hampshire Department of Labor currently applies this law to remote-based employees. Consequently, employees who “report to work” at an employer’s request from a home office may likewise have a right to two hours of pay, depending on the circumstances.

Salaried vs. hourly employees

Misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime remains a significant source of compliance exposure. The position’s job duties — not the titles or label such as “salaried” — determine whether an employee qualifies for an overtime exemption.

Employers, particularly in nonprofits, health care and small businesses, unintentionally misapply exempt classifications to roles such as administrative staff, office managers, executive assistants, program coordinators or hybrid jobs that involve significant non-exempt tasks. Over time, as organizational needs evolve and employees take on broader responsibilities, job duties can drift outside of an exemption’s scope.

Best practice is to periodically review job descriptions and actual job duties to ensure continued compliance with exemption criteria, particularly following any significant restructuring or job redesigns.

Peg O’Brien is chair of McLane Middleton’s Employment Law Practice Group. She can be reached at margaret.o’brien@mclane.com.

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New Hampshire

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Published

13 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Local News

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” said the family of the victim.

A new photo has been released of the victim in a nearly 30-year-long unsolved murder case, in the hope of finding any new potential witnesses in the cold case, New Hampshire officials said.

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” the family of Rosalie Miller said in a press release. “We miss her and want to give her peace.”

Miller was last seen on December 8, 1996 at her apartment in Manchester. At the time of her disappearance, Miller had plans on meeting friends in the Auburn, New Hampshire area, officials said.

Her body was found on January 20, 1997 in a partially wooded spot on a residential lot along the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn, officials said in the release.

The autopsy report declared Miller’s death a homicide by asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation, N.H. officials wrote.

As part of a new effort to garner public help with the case, an “uncirculated” photo of Miller, 36, is being distributed “in hopes it may jog the memory of someone who saw or spoke with her in the winter of 1996,” Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall announced on behalf of the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit in a joint press release.

Investigators are especially hoping to talk to anyone who was in contact with Miller in December of 1996 or anyone “who may have seen her in the vicinity of the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn during that time,” officials said in the release.

The newly released photo of Rosalie Miller, 36, who was strangled to death nearly 30 years ago. – Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall

“We are releasing this new photograph today because we believe someone out there has information, perhaps a detail they thought was insignificant at the time, that could be the key to solving this case and bringing justice for Rosalie and those who loved her,” Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles, New Hampshire Cold Case Unit Chief said in the release.

The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit encourages anyone with any amount of information to contact the group at [email protected] or (603) 271-2663.