Today marks a special day for the Spy’s editors and writers since we have now formally launched the Cambridge Spy. It will join the Chestertown Spy and the Talbot Spy as we continue our educational mission of providing essential local public affairs coverage while celebrating the arts and culture of Dorchester County.
While the Cambridge Spy is new, we have been spying on the Groove City for more than a decade. Since we started the Chestertown Spy in 2009 (named after the first newspaper, which began in 1793), Cambridge has always played an oversized role in the Mid-Shore’s culture. From the rich heritage of Harriet Tubman to the writings of John Barth, this City has always fascinated us. It is regrettable to this publisher that it has taken this long to complete our desire to serve this great community.
But here we are, and I’m pleased and proud to say that we’ve found the perfect partner to work with as begin this vital work. For years, the Spy and WHCP Community Radio have been supportive friends. From the moment the former NPR technology executive Mike Starling told us of his plans for WHCP, we realized we were driven with the same mission. Both the Spy and WHCP are devoted to providing free access to both readers and listeners alike to Cambridge’s important news and highlights using the power of local volunteer talent, a nonpartisan philosophy, and a nonprofit business model that ensures community oversight and stewardship.
While WHCP and the Spy are still working out our collaboration’s finer points, you will already see signs of this unique media cooperation. The radio station is already running the Spy’s very popular “From and Fuller” political analysis podcast, and we have teamed up with WHCP board member Pastor Cesar Gonzalez in interviewing candidates for the City’s runoff election for mayor this December. We are thrilled to be part of this remarkable experiment.
As the new kid on the Cambridge block, we are ever mindful of our freshman status. We do not seek to replace Cambridge’s highly regarded legacy news outlets, including the Banner and the Dorchester Star, but instead, as we have in Talbot and Kent County, augment their meaningful role with the creative and long-form use of multimedia and video that the internet can now provide.
We also know that we will fail in our mission without the full engagement of the community we intend to serve. We, therefore, ask that the residents of Cambridge and Dorchester County see the Spy as a portal for unique points of view, commentary, as well as prose and poetry.
Today, the Spy readership stands at over 600,000 a year who visit our sites at least once. That also translates into close to 4 million pages of content consumed during that period. Those numbers are impressive by any standard, and we are grateful for this remarkable level of support. Still, they also demonstrate the implicit trust those followers have in our intentions and genuine care for the communities we serve. I hope in time that the same level of trust will be replicated in Cambridge as well.
In the meantime, I do hope you will sign up for our free email daily Cambridge Spy Intelligence Report here, or follow us on our Facebook page here. I also want to extend an invitation again to local writers to submit their work or opinions at [email protected] so we can quickly start reflecting the community’s wealth of talent.
It is an honor and a responsibility to begin the Cambridge Spy. Speaking on behalf of our spy network, we hope to earn your confidence and support in the months and years ahead.
Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Editor
The Cambridge Spy
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