''The Martha’s Vineyard Times'' is an independently owned weekly

community newspaper Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community j ...

, published by The MV Times Corp. on the island of

Martha’s Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

, seven miles off the coast of Southeastern

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. The newspaper has an average circulation of 15,000, is distributed free of charge to all Island postal customers, and is available for sale at

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

locations around the Island. The Times’s website has published 100 percent of its weekly content, in addition to web-only material, since it first went live in 2001. The site attracts more than 3 million

unique visitors Website popularity is commonly determined using the number of unique users, and the metric is often quoted to potential advertisers or investors. A website's number of unique users is usually measured over a standard period of time, typically a m ...

and 4.3 million sessions each year, roughly equally divided among islanders and off-Islanders. ''The Martha’s Vineyard Times'' and its staff, and ''Times'' special publications have all won multiple awards — including Newspaper of the Year in 2017, 2018, and 2019 — from the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Newspaper & Press Association.

History

''The

Times'' was founded in the spring of 1984 by five Islanders in the midst of great population growth (45 percent between 1970 and 1980, 30 percent between 1980 and 1990, and another 30 percent between 1990 and 2000) and social and economic change in the Vineyard community personal per capita income increased more than sixfold in the same period. In the obituary for Robert “Bob” Carroll, retired ''Times'' editor Doug Cabral said, “They believed that the Vineyard needed a newspaper that would take an aggressive interest in the year-round residents and the year-round economy of the Vineyard, both of which they thought were under-represented,” and so took direct aim at the editorial convictions of the venerable and much admired weekly

Vineyard Gazette The ''Vineyard Gazette'' is one of two paid circulation newspapers on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Founded in 1846, it also circulates in many other states and countries to seasonal residents of the resort island. History The ''Gazette'' was ...

, which was deeply committed to conservation and preservation of the Vineyard’s bucolic past. The challenges of publishing a comprehensive and responsible community newspaper in a competitive market proved daunting to the founders, and in 1991 they sold ''The Martha’s Vineyard Times'' to their editor Doug Cabral and his wife Molly. An early challenge was the decision to convert the ''Times'' from a paid circulation

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

, like the ''Vineyard Gazette'', to a free, mailed, tabloid-size newspaper. The new competition was met with consternation and disdain from the ''Gazette''’s leadership, but the strategy proved successful. In combination with comprehensive community readership and a broad

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

constituency, the business advantages of total market circulation and advertiser reach provided the financial support necessary to sustain a viable model for

community journalism Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community j ...

Staff and Organization

''The Martha’s Vineyard Times'' employs approximately 20 full-time staff year-round, along with a number of freelance and part-time staff. Responsibility for all editorial products lies with Jamie Kageleiry, associate publisher. All print and web products are published by Martha’s Vineyard Times Corp., which is owned by Peter and Barbara Oberfest, who serve as publishers. The Oberfests became partners in ''The Times'' with Doug and Molly Cabral in 1995 and became sole owners in May 2014.

References

External links

''The Martha's Vineyard Times'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marthas Vineyard Times, The Newspapers published in Massachusetts Publications established in 1984 Weekly newspapers published in the United States