''The Highlands Current'' is a New York State weekly newspaper located in Cold Spring, New York. Currently owned and managed by a nonprofit corporation, Highlands Current Inc., the current publication was founded in 2010, and it "serves to provide readers a balanced reporting of news and events." Edited by Chip Rowe, ''The Highlands Current'' provides two ways to access their news, through their official website and their print edition. Since its 2010 founding, it has won over 45 awards and has published over 8,000 articles. the office is located at 142 Main Street in Cold Spring.

History

Highlands Current Inc. was founded in 2010 by Philipstown resident Gordon Stewart, under the name of Philipstown.Info, Inc. Originally providing readers news through their website, Stewart later expanded the corporation in 2012 to a print edition, called ''The Paper''. In 2014, Stewart gathered a

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

to officially establish a community-supported not-for-profit organization. Later that year, Stewart gave his position as publisher to the new board of the organization and died later that year. In October 2015, the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

confirmed the status of Philipstown.Info, Inc., as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization as described under section

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

of the

Internal Revenue Code The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 ...

. The organization was therefore eligible to receive contributions that were tax-deductible to the donor. The corporation was registered with the Charities Bureau in the Office of the New York State Attorney General and actively solicits contributions only within New York State. Furthermore, in May 2015, Philipstown.Info, Inc., became a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News. Its mission is “to provide education and business support services to our nonprofit member organizations and promote the value and benefit of public-service and

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

”. In April 2016, to reflect broadening coverage of Beacon and other neighboring towns, the newspaper was renamed ''The Highlands'' ''Current'' and the website, highlandscurrent.org. The corporation became Highlands Current Inc.

Coverage

Every Friday, ''The Highlands Current'' publishes news to the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

towns of Cold Spring,

Garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

, and Beacon about Cold Spring, Beacon, Garrison, the Hudson Valley, Putnam County and Philipstown. It focuses on news covering business, community issues, crime, education, government, and social issues. The sections are further divided into sub-sections and provides readers with a range of variety from local to national news. In addition, Highlands Current Inc. allows viewers to post free online ads for up to two weeks. These can include job offerings, criminal lists, and also allows people to post items for sale. In addition, the paper includes an online archive section that has hundreds of articles dating back to 2012.

Awards

At the National Newspaper Association’s 2017 Better Newspaper Contest held in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Virginia, ''The Highlands Current'' won seven national awards. Following these achievements, it won an additional 12 state awards in 2019. Since its first year of eligibility in 2013, ''The Highlands Current'' has won 45 NYPA awards. The following includes its achievements: * 1st Place, Best Business Stories Among Non-Daily Newspapers, Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest * 1st Place, Best Original Editorial Cartoon, Clay Jones "Shared Services" (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest *1st Place, Feature Story Category for Non-Circulation, Michael Turton "A Day in Drug Court" (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest *1st Place, Video Journalism, Greg Gunder "The World's Oldest Barber" (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest *1st Place, In-Depth Recording for Circulation of 5,000 or Less, Chip Rowe "Fighting Back - The Opioid Crisis" (2018) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

New York Press Association The New York Press Association (NYPA) is a member organization of newspapers in New York State. The NYPA provides editorial assistance, advice and counsel to its 800 member newspapers, advocates for best journalism practices, provides a libel h ...

*1st Place, Best News or Feature Series Among Newspapers with Circulations of 4,000 to 7,000, Chip Rowe "Hot Hot? How Soon? Climate Change in the Highlands" (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*1st Place, Best Environmental Coverage, Chip Rowe "Hot Hot? How Soon? Climate Change in the Highlands" (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*1st Place, Feature-Story Division for Newspapers with Circulations of 4,000 to 6,000, Michael Turton "Were You Just Thinking We Should Do a Story on Coincidences?" (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*1st Place, Sports-Feature Division, Brian PJ Cronin "The Endless List" (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*2nd Place, Best News or Feature Series, Chip Rowe "Fighting Back - The Opioid Crisis" (2018) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*2nd Place, In-Depth Reporting Among Papers with Circulations of 4,000 to 7,000, Chip Rowe "Hot Hot? How Soon? Climate Change in the Highlands" (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*2nd Place, In-Depth Reporting Among Papers with Circulations of 4,000 to 7,000, Brian PJ Cronin "Nice Guys Finish Last." (2019) - Annual Better Newspaper Contest by the

*3rd Place, Best Advertisement, Kate Vikstorm (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest *3rd Place, Feature Story Category for Non-Circulation "Off the Wall at Grey Printing" (2017) - National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Highlands Current, The Weekly newspapers published in the United States Newspapers published in New York (state) Newspapers established in 2010

History

Coverage

Awards

See also

References