🔒Q&A: Former Worcester Magazine reporter Bill Shaner takes a stab at independent news gathering

Bill Shaner started as a reporter and columnist for Worcester Magazine in 2016, writing stories and columns largely on the city. In 2019, GateHouse Media acquired Worcester Magazine and put it under the purview of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. After two of his opinion columns were not allowed to be published, he quit GateHouse and started his own Worcester news opinion website. 

One of your main WoMag responsibilities was the Worcesteria column. What did you try to do with it?

Worcesteria focused on political gossip, snarkiness, and my take on the city that week. The tone of Worcesteria was antagonistic of city hall. It had a light conversational tone, but it was very critical of what the city was doing in any particular week. It was a space where I could talk about rumors, speculate and provide the insider context behind the news.

Did that change after GateHouse acquired WoMag?

GateHouse Media acquired Worcester Magazine and systemically dismantled it as an alt-weekly publication. I tried to keep my job the same, but it was trying to fight the tide. GateHouse laid off our editor and our arts reporter on the same day, which left me as the only person in the newsroom. That changed my job.

Worcesteria was tolerated to a certain point. I didn’t have any major conflicts until I was critical of city hall and the police, centered around the Defund WPD movement. Those columns were not allowed to run. I was told because I had written a news story about the Defund WPD movement, I couldn’t write an opinion column about it. That was a reasonable position for an old-school newspaper of record to take, but I always saw myself as an alt-weekly reporter and wanted to stay that way. It was just a difference of opinion.

GateHouse Media systematically destroyed a publication I really liked working for. There are still good people working on it, producing a solid magazine, but it’s not what I signed up for.

Other former newspaper journalists have tried – to varying degrees of success – to start their own publications. How will you be successful?

I will be successful if I am able to generate enough revenue from subscriptions to make up for the salary I lost from WoMag. We’re not even two weeks in, and I already have 350 subscribers. Another 100 and I will hit my goal. Subscriptions are $5 per month and $69 for the year.

I’m not going to become a millionaire writing about Worcester, but I just want to make enough money to make it a living. If I’m not successful, I work another job, too. I’m not going to starve in the street. If I get to 1,000 subscriptions, I could probably make a living on it alone. I also can work as a freelance journalist, so I can pitch to other publications now.

Are you worried about having to run the business side of a publication?

Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue, and they handle all of the financial stuff. I just write and post, and the money comes into my account. It is very easy. They give me an opportunity to make a buck off my writing.

What value do you provide to make people want a subscription?

I’m trying to be informative and entertaining – even if I’m not as funny as I think I am – and be another voice in the city. Is having me write about Worcester this way worth a couple of bucks a month to you? Do you value an independent voice in Worcester? We don’t have many left. There is a big lack of opinion writing in Worcester right now.

How often will you post?

The right balance for this is two per week, because you don’t want to flood people. You don’t want to write about things that aren’t worth it. But you don’t want to write so infrequently that people forget about you.

Seems like you’ve had a strong response so far.

Not only have people been subscribing, but they are posting on their own personal social media accounts, telling their friends they should check it out. A lot of my subscribers are people I interact with on social media. It is going really well.

I’m going to follow my nose and figure it out as I go. It is like starting a band; there is a lot of work to start up in the beginning.

I’m hoping I can do this forever. Hopefully, I just found a way to keep getting paid doing what I love.

This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Brad Kane, WBJ editor.