I was asked to write a piece about the history of the Source upon the momentous occasion of 20 years of publishing the daily online newspaper. The St. Thomas Source was launched Jan. 15, 1999; St. Croix Source followed on July 15; and St. John Source launched Dec. 15.
Source Publisher Kelsey Nowakowski asked me to talk about what made me do it – start an online newspaper at a time when the Virgin Islands barely had crackling dial up internet connections.
In two words, Jeffrey Prosser. Please take advantage of the internet by clicking the link to a Wall Street Journal article (Link: WSJ Prosser article) written almost two years to the day after we launched the St. Thomas Source on Jan. 15, 1999, about Prosser’s dealings in the Virgin Islands – and what he and they thought of the territory.
In 1998 he already owned the phone company, cable TV company, a bank and the Virgin Islands Daily News. Having grown up in a time when one could still believe in a democracy and count on Congressional anti-trust busting, I was not okay with any one person having that much power.
Twenty years later, Prosser, having gone belly up, is a side bar. But the greed, corruption and rampant self-interest, are not.
That is why the Source is still here. As most people know by now, the average journalist these days are not in it for the money. But we stuck it out with the help of many generous and hardworking people – people who for years worked for nothing. People who invested. People who advertised. People who by law deemed the Source a “newspaper of general circulation.” People who donated and still do.
Someone told me when I started the Source it was a business, not a crusade. It was never a business in the way we think of that in our capitalistic culture, but it was a game changer.
Sadly, in the years since we launched, independent news organizations have either been sucked into huge corporate conglomerates or disappeared entirely.
In 2002, when the Source was one of the top four finalists in the Online Journalism Awards in the category of General Excellence presented by the Online News Association and tColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism, at a time of great excitement about the possibilities of this free, far-reaching delivery system, there were a few thousand non-affiliated internet newspapers. We were in the non-affiliated category under 200,000 readers. Three years later there was no longer a non-affiliated category at all. I can only assume because most had not survived.
In re-reading the WSJ description of the Virgin Islands in the Prosser piece, I was unnerved, but fully aware that it describes the territory pretty well in one or two aspects, quoted below.
“Years of official mismanagement and bloated public payrolls have left the U.S. territory’s government all but bankrupt.” (This was 19 years ago). The Journal also said, “graft is common.”
It is a journalist’s job to expose the wrongdoing, but it is the community’s job to change it. Both require courage.
Meanwhile, we knew at the Source there was another story to tell. A story of hope and accomplishment; a story of volunteerism and love. And also, the story of the aftermath of devastating hurricanes which don’t stay on the national media radar for long. These are the stories the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times are not interested in telling. They don’t believe that stories like that sell newspapers. And it is not their job anyway.
So, the Source told them.
In the end, we found it was not the corruption, greed, laziness, dishonesty and narcissism that are the enemy. It is the cynicism, hopelessness and acceptance of the status quo. A steady diet of corruption and graft stories breeds inaction, apathy and fatal neglect.
Some days it feels like nothing has changed; it can be paralyzing. But after a good night’s sleep and a little prayer, journalists get up and do it again. At least the ones who are in it to foster change rather than make money or garner “likes” on Facebook.
For every problem, there is a solution. The Source has always made an effort to serve the solution as much as possible along with the problem. And we strive to tell the whole story rather than pander to the clamoring for a scapegoat. We are all responsible for our village.
Before I go, I want to note that over the years I have named and thanked all (I hope) of the individuals who made the Source possible, and they all know who they are. There are many. I am in no way taking credit for what the Source has come to mean to this community. We accomplish nothing alone. From that day to this, it was always a “God” thing and all the folks who supported the effort represented Her great gifts.
In a random encounter on Main Street in the summer of 1998 I was offered – by His grace – an opportunity to perhaps make a difference and I took it. The rest is history.
