Welcome to CommonWealth Beacon

November 1, 2023

By Bruce Mohl

CommonWealth changes its name today to CommonWealth Beacon, a move that has been in the works for a long time and signals a shift in attitude at what may be the state’s oldest nonprofit news organization.

We started out in 1996 as a four-times-a-year wonky print magazine. Over time, as the news business changed, we began to change as well. We launched a website, stopped printing our magazine, and focused on news, commentary, and a daily newsletter. As the news ecosystem in Massachusetts continued to shrink, we didn’t buck the tide. Our staff got smaller over the years, not bigger. 

But that is changing today. We are adding staff reporters, hiring people for the first time who can hopefully help us grow our readership and our revenues, and raising our sights. As nonprofit local news sites pop up across the state, we want to get in on the action at the state level.

We set off on this journey with Charlie Kravetz, the former general manager at WBUR, who became the philosophical guru of our evolution. We visited other nonprofit news outlets around the country and learned how many of them employ dozens of reporters explaining the workings of government and holding the powerful accountable.

Charlie raised the seed money to launch CommonWealth Beacon from a group of individuals interested in seeing us do more. And now, with MassINC CEO Joe Kriesberg at the helm, we’re getting down to work.

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It’s exciting, and something I’ve been waiting a long time to see. We’ve hired the MassINC Polling Group to conduct the first CommonWealth Beacon poll, which will roll out this week starting with a piece from executive editor Michael Jonas.

We’re recommitting to long-form journalism, taking an in-depth look at issues confronting our state.

We’re doubling down on our commentary offerings, publishing more of them and encouraging pieces from those whose voices are not heard as much. We’re even participating in a program where emerging policy leaders learn how to write a solid op-ed and get it published.

Jennifer Smith, one of our reporters, is leading our efforts with The Codcast, a weekly podcast with great potential to discuss issues and explore ideas with people in the news. Jennifer is hosting a special live podcast today about the state of democracy in Massachusetts with Harvard’s Danielle Allen at 3:15 p.m

We published a commentary today from Walter Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter from the Boston Globe. (Robinson was played by Michael Keaton in the movie Spotlight.) The commentary is the speech he gave at a recent conference of Massachusetts nonprofit news outlets, where he said state residents are embracing their brand of journalism.

“Not too long ago, philanthropic dollars routinely and reliably flowed to important community institutions, like museums, hospitals, and the local philharmonic,” Robinson said. “After all we’ve been through, it has become increasingly obvious that our civic health needs the sustenance that nonprofit news sites increasingly provide.”

We’re only just beginning this effort. One could say we’re taking baby steps, but what we do and how fast we do it will depend in large part on the support and ideas we receive from our readers. So spread the word, let us know what you’re thinking, and jump aboard.

• COURT FIGHT: The Healey administration released new rules for capping the size of the population served by the state’s emergency shelter program and went to court in an attempt to fend off an advocacy group seeking to block the governor’s bid to change the rules. The judge indicated a decision would be released on Wednesday.

• OPINION – GRID CHECKLIST: Phelps Turner of the Conservation Law Foundation and Mireille Bejjani of Slingshot say the region’s power grid operator needs to be more accessible, accountable, and committed to fighting climate change.

BEACON HILL

• The Department of Conservation and Recreation pledges to roll out multilingual beach signs by next summer, two seasons later than originally planned. (WBUR)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

• City workers plan to begin taking down tents in Boston’s troubled Mass. and Cass area this morning following passage of an ordinance making more clear the authority to do so. (Boston Globe) Fox News, mostly relying on Boston Herald reporting, picks up on Boston’s move to dismantle the tent encampment, with a headline saying, “Blue city’s ‘Methadone Mile’ to be dismantled after progressive mayor makes order.” 

• New Bedford’s economic prospects are brightening, but rents are also rising at a rate that is pricing many people out of the South Coast community. (WBUR)

• A 41-unit affordable housing complex in Mattapan has the go-ahead from Boston’s Zoning Board. (Dorchester Reporter)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

• A bill before the Legislature seeks to expand the definition of family members eligible to be reimbursed through MassHealth programs to include spouses. (Cape Cod Times)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL

• In another development showing there were clear warning signs of danger, it was revealed that the Army reservist who slaughtered 18 people last week in Lewiston, Maine, had been involuntarily committed over the summer to a mental hospital in New York. (Boston Globe)

ELECTIONS

• Howie Carr continues to thump the drum for Republican Peter Durant in next week’s special election for state Senate in Central Mass. (Boston Herald)

• Amherst and Easthampton school committees are among the local races to watch in the November 7 general election. (MassLive)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

• Another downtown Boston building has sold at a big loss as the enormous shifts in work patterns from the pandemic continue to reverberate through the economy. (Boston Globe) Some researchers say the hollowing out of downtown buildings could portend an “urban doom loop.” 

EDUCATION

• The majority of members of a task force advising the Boston Public Schools on policies to integrate English language learners into mainstream classrooms resigned, saying the district’s plans will lead to worse outcomes among this population. (Boston Globe)

• The Everett schools superintendent is placed on leave at a tense meeting of the school committee. (WBUR)

• Worcester State University leaders said the school is taking steps to bolster security in the wake of a shooting over the weekend that left one young man dead and another hospitalized. (Worcester Telegram)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

• Proposed legislation would require the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to adopt regulations that aim to reduce the impact of combined sewer overflows on public waterways. (MetroWest Daily News)

MEDIA

• The Boston Globe hires Cristina Silva from USA Today as managing editor for local news. (Media Nation)