'Saving the Stone Church'

The multimedia story I have begun working on is the selling of the music club known as "The Stone Church." Located in Newmarket, New Hampshire, The Stone Church has been a premier small music venue in the area since it opened in the late 1960s. However, as a result of the worsening economy and a substantial debt incurred during renovations in 2004, The Stone Church's former owners, Chris Hislop, John Pasquale and Paul Nessel, we're forced to sell the building at auction on September 12, 2008.

The new owners, Adam Schroadter, Art Murphy and Scott Orlosk, bid on the property with the intention of keeping the facility a music venue. Murphy, who has been in the music industry for a number of years with a production company called Thumbprint Productions, told me the news that The Stone Church was being sold at auction was "like a call to arms" to save the venue.

Orlosk also told SeacoastOnline.com that "saving the music was the mission."

As for the name of the venue it looks as if Orlosk and his partners intend to keep it the same, but the details haven't been finalized yet.

This story absolutely lends itself to multimedia reporting - it's about a music club after all. I intend to craft the story around the reopening; this event being the hard-news story that justifies the larger multimedia component.

My vision for the project looks like this: there's a standard news story about the reopening (in my blog) posted the morning after the first show. Attached to this story is the multimedia component. This is a picture slide show of The Stone Church's 40-plus-year history, recent difficult times, the exchanging of owners, and reopening. The slide show will feature audio including: music, interviews and pertinent noises (ie: construction or background noises for images of renovation, moving, etc.).

As of right now I've only spoken with Murphy and he's asked that I keep in touch with him over the next few weeks as he and his partners finalize the purchase and begin the reopening. That said, I do not know a tentative reopening date yet (nor do the owners).

This is a bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, it means I'll have plenty of time to contact the old owners, conduct interviews, and search for old pictures and audio. On the other hand, it may mean that I will need to identify more immediate stories, or that I will not be able to do the story at all (if the reopening doesn't happen before the end of the semester).