Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Kanner.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My background is in journalism. I started out as a reporter for Foster’s Daily Democrat, a daily based in Dover, NH. That’s where I met my wife, Chloe, also a reporter. We happened to start working at Foster’s on the same day in September 2005. At first, I worked in the Rochester, NH bureau, but I was later transferred to Portsmouth where I covered the police/fire/court beat.
In 2007, I was hired as associate editor of The Wire, an alt-weekly newspaper based in Portsmouth, and I later became editor in chief. Chloe eventually started working there as well. We covered a huge variety of topics, including local news and politics, arts and culture, and the outdoors.
After about five years at The Wire, I was hired as managing editor of two weeklies in Vermont: the Stowe Reporter and the Waterbury Record. We moved to Vermont with our months-old daughter and lived in Morrisville for about two years. But eventually, we concluded that the Portsmouth area felt more like home. We moved back to the New Hampshire Seacoast in the summer of 2014 and started our own alt-weekly paper called The Sound. Last year, we converted The Sound to an online-only publication, and shortly thereafter we acquired the website PortsmouthNH.com. Since then, we’ve merged the two sites and made PortsmouthNH.com our primary business.
Chloe and I live in Rye, NH, with our 5-year-old daughter Mirabel,our dog Ace and our cat Spooky.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth ride, but it wouldn’t be very interesting if there weren’t a few bumps, would it? Working as a reporter and editor is immensely rewarding, but it can also be stressful. It’s hard work, there’s intense scrutiny and you don’t get rich doing it.
Starting our own paper was especially rewarding — and challenging. It’s not easy to operate a print publication these days (nor has it ever been), and the decision to switch to an online-only business model was bitter-sweet. But we’re proud of what we’ve done, we don’t regret any of it and we’re always learning.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with PortsmouthNH.com – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
PortsmouthNH.com was founded in 1996 as an online guide to the city of Portsmouth. Over the last 20-plus years, Portsmouth has gained a huge reputation as a desirable place to live and visit, and with the city’s growth, interest in the site has increased tremendously. I purchased the site from the original owner in June of 2016 and now serve as publisher. It’s an independently owned and operated local business.
The great thing about PortsmouthNH.com is that it has features that appeal to both locals and visitors. It’s got listings of hotels, restaurants, salons, breweries, downtown shops, attractions, and things to do. It’s got an events calendar, movie schedules, weather forecasts, and tide charts. It’s got hundreds of landscape photos from around the region. It even has a “harbor cam” that provides a live video feed of the Port of New Hampshire and its famous tugboats. Plus we have original articles about local arts, lifestyle, and news. For visitors, the site has everything you need to plan a trip to the Portsmouth area. For locals, it keeps you up to speed on Seacoast events and happenings. We recently circulated a questionnaire to all candidates for Portsmouth City Council so that voters can get informed before the November election.
I’m proud that we have a website that provides valuable, original content that caters to both locals and tourists. Both are vital to the economy and vibrancy of Portsmouth, and it’s important that our site is useful and enjoyable to both audiences.
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
To me, success is being able to make a living doing something that I enjoy that I find meaningful, and that affords me the time and flexibility to pursue other interests. Like with any job, mine comes with periods of tedium and frustration, but more often than not it brings me joy and meaning. And in the years to come I intend to make this business even more fun and meaningful.
I’m not sure there’s a specific point at which one definitively arrives at success. The ongoing pursuit is part of it. I have to push myself and not get complacent, or else even the above criteria won’t equate to true success. My career has bounced around a lot over the last 12 years, but I kind of like it that way. I don’t know if I qualify as a “success,” but I’ll keep working toward it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 105 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801
- Website: www.portsmouthnh.com
- Phone: 603-373-0499
- Email: publisher@portsmouthnh.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/PortsmouthNHcom/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/PortsmouthNHcom
Image Credit:
Portsmouth Harbor Cam
Charles Cormier
James Merecki
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