ABOUT

Who Am I?

I’m a suburban father and husband, award-winning journalist and radio broadcaster, political blogger, online and print publisher, and musician (specifically, both acoustic and electric guitar, sometimes through very loud amplifiers). I am a proven writer and editor with strong multi-media skills, a record of driving audience growth, and leading teams of content creators working in different formats. I enjoy talking to people and hearing about their thoughts, dreams and hopes for the future. I also love producing and editing videos and taking photos, marketing, and promoting the companies and organizations I work for.

Professional Experience

I’ve been involved in media for more than three decades starting out first with a weekly radio program in Boston at WMFO, Tufts University’s community radio station, and as a freelancer writer at various newspapers in eastern Massachusetts, covering governmental meetings and producing features on local businesses and people in the early 1990s.

After stints working in retail, politics, radio board operation, and media and equipment sales, I decided to venture into community journalism full-time and during the last 25 years, I’ve been gathering news for newspapers, radio stations, and online companies.

I was hired to be the reporter of the Belmont Citizen-Herald, in Belmont, Mass., in 2000 and was promoted to the editor’s position at The Winchester Star in Winchester, Mass., in 2002, where I remained until 2004.

During this time, I also ventured into blogging in my free time, creating Politizine.com, short for “political fanzine.”

In late 2004, I was hired as a news reporter and anchor for WKXL 1450 AM in Concord, New Hampshire. Along with my reporting duties, I hosted an hour block of arts and entertainment programming. In 2005, I was named news director and later, program director. I was named CEO (station manager) at the end of 2005 and sales manager in 2006.

I returned to edit the Citizen-Herald in the spring of 2007.

While working in Massachusetts and living in New Hampshire, I was frustrated by the local news coverage in my community, so I started the OurConcord.com blog in 2007. The motto was, Yup, it’s your city, but it is also ours.

I was named senior editor of Gate House Media New England’s Lexington office in 2010. At the time, we had a team of nine in the Lexington office. I also took on the responsibility of co-editing The Lincoln Journal.

In June 2011, I was hired to create the Concord NH Patch news and community website. At the end of its first year, the site was named Best Website by the New Hampshire Press Association. I also broke a number of national stories including political coverage that received accolades from people like Arianna Huffington, the founder of The Huffington Post. The site earned the Best Website second place award in 2013.

After structural changes at Patch, including a majority stake sale of the company by AOL in January 2014, my responsibilities expanded, leading me to write, edit, and curate a number of Patch sites in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 2015, I shifted to just writing and editing New Hampshire sites. In the spring of 2015, I served in a short stint as regional manager for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, leading a team of 12.

As of January 2025, I’m a senior local editor for NH and RI, contributing to all 14 New Hampshire Patch sites, while also assisting our lone Rhode Island editor.

During all this time, I’ve won more than 40 journalism and broadcasting awards (closing in on 50) for audio news, general and community excellence, breaking-spot news, investigatory, government, education, crime, courts, and election coverage, opinion-analysis, video, entertainment, print design, and right-to-know content. I received the third place Journalist of the Year from the NHPA in 2021 (for 2020 news coverage in Concord).

Politics & Spirituality

I’ve been interested in politics for many, many years, dating back to the days that I was dragged around by my parents as a pre-teen, attending events during the 1976 Democrat and Republican presidential primaries (I follow politics like other people follow sports). I have been writing and talking about politics and public policy since the 1980s, in print, online, and on the radio.

Philosophically, I consider myself a “liberal-tarian”; meaning that my political values are a mix of traditional liberalism and small “L” libertarianism. The solutions to our nation’s ills are a combination of all kinds of ideas and policies. No single political party or movement has a corner on fixes. I’m registered as an “undeclared” because I enjoy the option of voting in either political party’s primary.

As far as religious beliefs go, I consider myself a very spiritual, New Testament Christian, who occasionally attends services at Christ the King Parish in Concord (formerly St. John the Baptist Church), where both my boys and me were baptized.

Personal Interests

Some of my interests include playing adult recreation league softball, hiking, devouring books (media and political history, especially), watching movies, producing voiceovers, noodling in my home studio, and creating music podcast-mix tapes, saving the universe from the Covenant in online Halo games, listening to all kinds of music, and grilling during the spring and summer months.

I previously hosted the Taste the Floor radio program on WNHN 94.7 LP (FM) in Concord and IPM Nation Live 2.

Community Involvement

Between 2006 and 2014, I served on the executive committee of the Concord Substance Abuse Coalition, including a number of years as the organization’s vice president. Previously, I also served on the board of the Friends of Forgotten Children. I co-founded and was co-chairman of the Concord Taxpayers Association with former judge and former U.S. Rep. Chuck Douglas until May 2011.

I am also a 2007 graduate of Leadership Greater Concord, a program offered by the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, and participate in a number of activities with the chamber when I have time.

Best, Tony
tony-at-tonyschinella.com

(Updated: Jan. 14, 2025).