Owner Domenic DiPiero announces gift of the newspaper to the public
RED BANK – In an exciting moment for the Two River area, Domenic DiPiero, owner of The Two River Times, has announced he is donating the newspaper to a newly created 501(c)(3) organization. DiPiero’s gift will ensure the area has a local news source for generations to come.
The Two River Times, owned privately since its founding, has been a vital part of the community since 1990. DiPiero purchased the award-winning weekly in 2014.
“I’m doing this because I believe journalism is important,” said DiPiero, who grew up in the Two River area. He attended elementary and high school in Red Bank and founded Newport Capital Group, headquartered on Broad Street.
“Rather than its success being dependent upon private leadership, I want it to be owned by the community,” he said. “I want this paper to be here 200 years from now.”
As a nonprofit, The Two River Times will continue delivering the news with the editorial integrity readers have known and relied on for more than 30 years.
“The news won’t change,” DiPiero said. “We have always been a mission-driven organization. Delivering news is a way of life and a calling. Our staff members believe journalism is integral to our community.”
DiPiero also won’t be going anywhere; he will continue to serve the paper as a member of the new nonprofit’s board. “I’m not leaving. I will stay on to continue to steward the paper with fellow members of the community.”
Thriving Nonprofits
In taking this step, DiPiero said The Two River Times is adopting a business model that has proven successful for other traditional media outlets nationwide. Newspaper owners across the country have made similar moves so they can continue covering local news, “an important part of democracy,” he said. News outlets like The Salt Lake Tribune, The Texas Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Sun-Times and Voice of San Diego have thrived as nonprofits.
The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair University has tracked developments in the New Jersey news ecosystem for the last 12 years. The center’s director, Stefanie Murray, said it believes that DiPiero is the first newspaper owner in New Jersey to donate his newspaper to a new nonprofit news entity.
Nationwide, the loss of reliable community news sources has created information deserts where residents receive little or no news about issues that directly impact their lives, something The Two River Times has successfully navigated.
The lack of a unifying community forum also means residents risk losing the sense of belonging that has long been a hallmark of life in America’s small towns.
With so much at stake, governments, private donors and foundations have worked together to ensure the public continues to have access to local news. New Jersey supports local news through its first-in-the-nation Civic Information Consortium, created in 2018, which distributes money from the state budget to “address the growing problem of news deserts, misinformation, and support more informed communities,” according to its mission statement.
The transformation from a commercial business to a nonprofit creates a sustainable model that recognizes the vital role and mission-driven values the news media fulfills in serving the public good. This move ensures The Two River Times will remain viable long after any single owner is gone.
This is not DiPiero’s only engagement in the nonprofit arena: The Middletown resident currently serves as a trustee for the Hackensack Meridian Health Network and Drexel University. His past board memberships include service with Riverview Medical Center, Two River Theater, Count Basie Center for the Arts, Rumson Country Day School, Villanova University, Salve Regina University and University Hospital (nominated by Gov. Chris Christie in 2013).
Growing in Importance
Founded in 1990, The Two River Times quickly established its voice in the community. DiPiero said he bought the publication because he recognized its importance to the local community.
The newspaper was founded by Red Bank advertising executive Claudia Ansorge, who sold it to journalist and then-Middletown resident Geraldo Rivera. Michael A. Gooch, a Rumson businessman, owned the paper before selling it to DiPiero.
“Since I purchased the paper in 2014, we have increased our readership, grown our advertising base, and worked hard to produce a newspaper that readers can rely on,” DiPiero said.
Readership and circulation have increased 50% and revenue has increased 40%. Website page views have seen a 245% increase, growing from 20,279 in June 2014 to an average of 70,000 in 2023.
“The paper has grown healthier by every metric,” he said.
“Our readers, our advertisers, our community and our staff have demonstrated the importance of the paper through their increasing support,” DiPiero said.
“People have come to realize that anyone can post on social media without truth, credibility or integrity,” making a trusted paper like The Two River Times all the more critical at this point in time, he said. “Print media and a reliable news source are not dead, at least not in our community.”
During DiPiero’s tenure, the paper has won dozens of New Jersey Press Association awards for news and feature reporting, local sports coverage and design. Over almost three-and-a-half decades, the paper has won the NJPA’s prestigious Lloyd P. Burns Memorial Award for Public Service multiple times.
DiPiero is quick to praise staff for their commitment to the work. “They have inspired me with their passion and dedication to local journalism,” he said. “The work they do every day helps to strengthen the bonds that connect us as a community, and they are particularly dedicated to that mission because it’s their community, too.”
Since its inception, The Two River Times has kept readers informed on issues and events that impact their lives, heralding the community’s achievements and sharing in the many challenges residents have faced and overcome, from hurricanes and power outages to the tragedy of 9/11 and the pandemic caused by COVID-19.
The Future in Service
Throughout its leadership changes, the paper has continued to serve the public good, covering life in the Two River area from many perspectives, week after week. It is an achievement that all its owners, editors and staff members have taken pride in over the years.
From its earliest years, the paper prioritized highlighting the helpers, celebrating the work of dozens of charitable and service organizations in the Two River area in its news articles, Scene page profiles and Two River People pages.
That support has helped deserving charities heighten their visibility and attract donations and volunteers, DiPiero noted. “This is a community that wants to help, that wants to be involved. It warms my heart and makes me feel lucky to be part of this special place.”
DiPiero’s gift to the community will ensure the achievements and milestones of community members receive the attention they deserve far beyond our lifetimes.
“The good I have witnessed in this community is astounding. This paper has been in the middle of so much positive and impactful change that benefits the greater community and all its stakeholders.”
With the paper on the threshold of a new era, DiPiero is looking forward to seeing it continue to thrive as a local newspaper and the primary means of keeping people informed. Every aspect of a newspaper, from the entertainment section to neighborhood activities to local and regional news, local sports, theater, upcoming events, community accomplishments and letters to the editor all play an essential role in keeping communities together.
DiPiero said he often reads copies of the Red Bank Register (a local paper published from 1878 to 1991) to “understand what Red Bank was like 100 years ago. Without the news being chronicled, that history would be lost.”
“People disappear, and time moves on, but newspapers hold our legacies, our contributions to our community and society. Without a local newspaper, there is no record of who we are, there’s no recording of what happened during our time here, no mark left once we’re gone,” said DiPiero.
“Our community succeeds because of the impact our residents make to change the landscape around us,” he said. “The Two River Times and local reporting is our chronicle of special people in a special place. In the public’s hands, who knows where this can go? Some things are bigger than an individual, and this is one of them.”
If you have questions about the announcement or how to support The Two River Times, please email info@tworivertimes.com.
The article originally appeared in the May 23 – 29, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
This article was updated May 23, 2024.
