Friday, May 1, 2009—Seriously. It was twenty years ago today, on May Day, 1989, that Bill Gardner, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State for Life,* officially assigned the legal right to publish The New Hampshire Gazette to the current editor, publisher, &c., &c. This brief video, created by Dan Freund and Jason Tublewicz, of Kinney Hill Media Partners, contains the short version of how that came about. We’ll add a few details after the show.
* OK, we’re kidding about “For Life”—but he has been in office since 1976.
The pamphlet in question was titled, The Monster of Monsters, by the pseudonymous “Tom Thumb, Esq.” It was printed by Daniel Fowle‘s younger, weirder brother, Zechariah, with help from Daniel’s enslaved pressman, Primus. The story is told in Isaiah Thomas‘s History of Printing, first published in 1810.
Our apologies to the late Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, whose title we mangled so badly in the video. Guess that anti-aristocratic streak runs pretty deep.
James expressed my sentiments entirely.
As a resident of Massachusetts with an office in Portsmouth it was indeed refreshing to see and hear who was behind the re-birth of the Gazette.
Your unnassumijng eloquence and perceptive insight deserves wider readership. I will include a link to your paper on my website so it does.
Thank you.
Eric Goodhart
That was a fine afternoon in 1989, indeed. 🙂
I’ve been reading the ‘Gazette steadily since I first came across it several months ago, and in that relatively short while, I have found the writing to consistently be a cut above other newspapers. You have a unique, independent style that I admire; especially in a state where the majority of news outlets seem to cater to mainstream conservatives and cardboard cut-outs.
You cover the kinds of stories no one else does, say the kinds of things no one else will, and your editorials are some of the best I’ve ever read anywhere.
Lately I’ve often found myself wanting to know more about the man behind the paper’s rebrith and its lengthy history, so I was quite excited to see this video today. Coincidentally, I am also friends with Jason Tublewicz, but I had no idea he was working on this until seeing it just now (so I am, of course, going to have to harass him about it.) Small world.
So thank you from Concord for all your excellent work, and I look forward to much more to come!
~ James