What is the Waltham News Alliance (WNA)?
We are a group of Waltham residents who came together in the spring of 2024 with the goal of bringing news coverage back to the city. We registered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and received 501(c)3 tax-exempt status from the IRS.
What is your goal?
We aim to deliver high-quality, objective reporting. Our community outreach indicates that people want to know what’s happening in the city so they can make informed decisions.
How will you produce this newspaper?
We will hire professional editors and journalists as well as other essential staff as required to run a high-quality, sustainable publication. Volunteers will be critically important and will include our board of directors, writers and copy editors as well as pro bono finance, legal and marketing experts.
What do you plan to cover?
We will focus on local news, which residents have told us is most important to them. We will prioritize coverage of city government, schools, housing issues, commercial development, traffic, public safety issues, local events and local elections. We are attentive to the diversity of Waltham and plan to cover and serve all the diverse groups within the city. As we scale, we plan to publish signed opinion pieces and letters to the editor. Our aspirations are to publish features about Waltham’s history, personalities, businesses, arts and culture – the stories about what makes us a vibrant and wonderful community.
Will you publish an online or print newspaper?
We will launch as a digital publication with weekly newsletters and a website. We hope to publish a print edition (weekly, biweekly or monthly), too, for those who can’t or don’t want to access the news digitally. The print edition will depend on our ability to generate advertising sales revenue to cover the cost.
How much will you charge for a subscription?
We will not have a paywall or charge for access, as we believe everyone should be able to freely access the news. Instead, we will support our operations through donations, grants, memberships (“NPR model”), fees for posting legal notices, death notices, in memoriams, etc., and eventually advertising. We hope Waltham residents will agree on the value of news and will support the newspaper.
What is your timeline?
Our goal is to launch news coverage in early 2025, although we might have some content online before then. We expect to start with a small team and scale up as resources permit. Our timeline and coverage capabilities will depend on our finances. We are fundraising now. Toward this goal, we have formed teams to develop our business plan, journalism plan and community outreach plan. We are learning from other local news startups – many of which are successes. The WNA is fully committed to establishing Waltham’s new “paper of record.”