A new philanthropy-funded US daily has appeared, reprising the name of a revered predecessor 291 years ago.
The four-person team at the South Carolina Daily Gazette staff the latest of 37 launched under the auspices of the States Newsroom network of nonprofit news outlets, which aims to have newsrooms or content-sharing agreements in all 50 states by mid-2024.
The 501(c)(3) non-profit, funded by contributions from readers and philanthropists, is committed to supporting fact-based, non-partisan news to the public at no cost and ad-free.
Pew Charitable Trusts also announced this year that it would be the new home of Stateline, merging two state policy-focused organisations to expand their reporting.
Editor Seanna Adcox says the news site’s name has been chosen to reflect South Carolina’s history, with a nod to the paper launched in 1732 by Thomas Whitmarsh, the first of Benjamin Franklin’s three business partners in a Charleston printing venture. Since then, more than 1600 newspapers have been founded in what is known affectionately as the Palmetto State.
“Hopefully, it will also hint at the future success of not only our outlet but a new path forward for an industry I believe is crucial for a functioning democracy,” she says.
For the record, award-winning journalist Adcox lists the two newspapers for which she worked – the Cheraw Chronicle and the Fort Mill Times – and their closures, in 2005 and 2020 respectively. “Since 2005, more than a quarter of newspapers nationwide have disappeared,” she says, “and the number of journalists has fallen from 75,000 in 2005 to 31,400 in 2021.
“That means nearly 44,000 fewer people – and undoubtedly fewer still since that report – paying attention to government at all levels, from school boards to the White House. Those left often don’t have the time to dig into what elected officials are doing.
“I won’t pretend or claim that we can ‘turn the Titanic around’ (to borrow from Amy Grant). But we can help – and hopefully offer a winning model for keeping readers informed with reliable, unbiased news.”
Pictured: Seanna Adcox (second from left) with South Carolina Daily Gazette reporters Jessica Holdman, Skylar Laird and Abraham Kenmore. (Photo Bill Meacham/SC Daily Gazette)