The Martha's Vineyard Times

The Martha's Vineyard Times is an independent publishing company and a weekly community newspaper and news organization on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles off the coast of southeastern Massachusetts. The Island’s six towns have a total year-round population of about 21,000 and a seasonal population estimated at about 100,000. [1] [2]

The Martha's Vineyard Times
TypePublisher
Owner(s)Barbara and Peter Oberfest
Founder(s)Al Brickman
Robert Carroll
Fred Ferro
Allen Jones
Edward Redstone
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters30 Beach Rd, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts 02568
 United States

The Times publishes comprehensive community news and information in three principal formats – a weekly print newspaper (The MV Times) delivered by mail and at retail locations across the Vineyard each Thursday morning, a five-day-a-week email newsletter (The Minute), and at a website Having converted from free to paid subscriptions in early 2020, the Times has a weekly print circulation of about 5,000, and there are approximately 10,000 Minute subscribers. The website attracts more than 5 million visitors annually, and up to 80,000 daily page views when there is breaking news. For both print and web, The Times also publishes Edible Vineyard, Vineyard Visitor, Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas, Voices, and Vineyard Property Values.

History

The Martha's Vineyard Times was founded in the spring of 1984 by five Vineyarders in the midst of great Island population growth (45 percent between 1970 and 1980 and a total of 160 percent between 1970 and 2020.) Major economic change occurred as well: personal per capita income increased more than sixfold in the same period. [3] [4]

In the Times’ obituary for Robert “Bob” Carroll, retired Times editor Doug Cabral said that Carroll and his partners “…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," [5] and in doing so took direct aim at the editorial convictions of the venerable and much admired weekly Vineyard Gazette, which was deeply committed to conservation and preservation of the Vineyard's bucolic past. [6]

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.[7] An early challenge was the decision to convert the Times from a paid circulation broadsheet, 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,[6][8] but the strategy proved successful. In combination with comprehensive community readership and a broad editorial constituency, the business advantages of total market circulation and advertiser reach provided the financial support necessary to sustain a viable model for community journalism in the Times’ early years. As market conditions changed dramatically in the early 2010s followed by Covid, the Times successfully converted to a paid subscription model in early 2020.

Staff and Organization

The Martha's Vineyard Times employs approximately 8 full-time staff members year-round, along with a number of part-time staff and freelancers. All print and web products are published by The Martha’s Vineyard Times Corp., which is owned by Peter and Barbara Oberfest, who serve as publishers.[7]

References
  1. "United States Census, Dukes County, Massachusetts". Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  2. "Dukes County, Massachusetts". Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  3. "Martha's Vineyard Commission, Data". Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  4. "Per Capita Personal Income in Dukes County, MA". Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  5. Sigelman, Nelson (2015-03-31). "Robert "Bob" Carroll dies at 90". Martha's Vineyard Times. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  6. Jacques, Steinberg (2003-05-05). "MEDIA; Editorial Crusader Takes Leave of the Vineyard". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  7. Times, The Martha's Vineyard (2014-03-27). "Longtime MV Times editor retires". Martha's Vineyard Times. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  8. "Taxing relationships - The Boston Globe". archive.boston.com. Retrieved 2022-08-19.



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