A conversation with Adam Stone

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” - Mark Twain

Ok, so scholars will sniff that those aren’t the exact words used by the literary giant after finding out that his obituary had been prematurely printed, but they seem to fit the bill here.

Just because the final paper version of The Examiner News has rolled off the presses, that doesn’t mean that the media outlet’s – or its intrepid founder’s -- important contributions to community journalism – have come to an end.

In fact, it and Adam Stone’s reporting, will live on online, continuing with the mission of providing readers with “professionally reported, fact-checked local news in their backyards,” the publisher/owner says.

The last run took place in late January/early February. It was the newspaper group’s 908th week of publishing.

The decision to go all digital was an incredibly tough one but unavoidably necessary due to the unsustainable economic -- and other -- realities of putting out four print editions a week, the 46-year-old Mount Kisco dad of two explains.

Among those breaking-point factors were the continued shrinking of advertising dollars, the skyrocketing price of newsprint, and the effect of inflation on operating costs in general.

As explained in his farewell to print, a “Stone’s Throw” essay, Stone “felt worn out by the grind of running a grueling race without a finish line, scraping and clawing to get by.”

The transition’s human toll has been equally heartbreaking.

Forced to let go of most of his “incredibly loyal, hardworking, and talented” staff, Stone plans to continue publishing his own reporting – as well as that of freelancers and interns -- on TheExaminerNews.com website.

Interns, although green, can be great assets for a newspaper, says Stone, who is grateful for the mentorship he enjoyed while in his early 20s.

“I really feel the obligation to give back. It’s rewarding too; I learn a lot from our interns,” he added.

When interviewing candidates, he asks them what their sensibilities and interests are, not only journalistically, but day-to-day.

General assignment reporters can tackle almost any topic and write about it with “some level of authority,” but, in Stone’s educated opinion, “some of the best journalism is produced when the reporter is diving into a subject they care deeply about.”

Stone holds onto the hope that – with digital ad revenue, support from paying members/subscribers, and some “pretty significant” annual donations – he can “build up a budget” that will allow Examiner Media not only to survive but evolve and thrive.

It should be mentioned here that the fearless chief and a dedicated crew of reporters, editors, photographers, designers, and advertising folks have been faithfully burning the midnight oil for 17 years.

Also helping steer the ship have been his dad, Peter, who he calls “history’s most underpaid chief financial officer” – and his sister, Laura Markowski, who was associate publisher.

(Markowski was the Examiner’s “secret weapon” and the one responsible for keeping “The Little Engine That Could” on track. One of the reasons that the print version of The Examiner hung in there for so long was his family members’ willingness to “work for peanuts,” Stone jokes.)

Besides his dad and sis, Stone credits his wife, Alyson, a schoolteacher; their two daughters, Maddie and Mia; and his wife’s folks, Sharon and Ken Foley, with helping him maintain his “equilibrium, despite the ceaseless professional stressors of managing print logistics.”

'Old School' Reporter

A main buttress to the success of the operation had been its founding editor in chief and “old school” reporter, Martin Wilbur, who Stone fondly described as his “partner in journalistic crime” and The Examiner’s “heart and soul.”

Praising him for his “unimpeachable integrity, strict sense of right and wrong and unbeatable work ethic,” Stone wrote: “Simply put, there would be no Examiner without Martin, and I’m forever grateful for his friendship and mentorship.”

Brooklyn born and raised, Wilbur was a reporter and an assistant editor, and Stone, a reporter, at The North County News, when the two met.

The core group of journalists who helped start Examiner Media were former NCN staffers who left the Yorktown-based weekly in 2006 and 2007.

When Stone reached out for help starting his new enterprise, Wilbur told him that he “didn’t have a great business sense but could definitely contribute towards the editorial side” of things.

At first, Wilbur viewed his participation as a “part-time adventure.” But within months, it became clear that it was something much, much more.

While there are tons of places where folks can get a sense of the world’s goings-on, there are fewer and fewer that can tell them about their own communities.

Whether it’s sports, government, education, the environment, businesses, arts and entertainment, human interest, health, fire/police, or politics; all topics are important.

Wilbur’s philosophy is simple: local newspapers should have “something for everyone.”

That’s part of the reason that The Examiner News lasted.

The other part of its success is the people who’d put in those 80-hour work weeks to deliver the goods.

“We wanted to put out a good product. We didn’t take ourselves seriously, but we took our jobs seriously,” Wilbur said, adding that the secret to being a good local reporter is to put the community first and yourself “second or third.”

“There’s nothing fancy about it. It’s showing up and showing up and showing up some more,” he said.

What was so frustrating during the pandemic was, while there was tons of news, there was “no place to show up.”

Virtual coverage left many reporters feeling that they were losing that important sense of human connection with the community.

By the time the world started opening back up, the economic damage had already been done and newspapers everywhere had to regroup in order to survive.

If there was one bright side, it was that virtual reporting allowed The Examiner to continue doing its job with a smaller staff.

“It was a great run. I’m thankful to have had the opportunity. While some of the weeks and the days were incredibly long, it was rewarding,” Wilbur said.

Between The North County News and The Examiner, he’s been reporting and editing (and taking photographs) for nearly three decades.

But it’s never gotten old.

“I got to know a whole different range of communities and people. You never know exactly how the day is going to go. There are always new people to meet, things to learn, and experiences to have,” said Wilbur, who is now freelancing for The Examiner News as well as looking for new writing and other job opportunities.

“Things change. It’s a fact of life. You adapt or try to as best you can,” he explained, adding that he hopes that The Examiner “continues to have a presence.”

“It’s important to have as many (news) outlets as you can, in whatever form. At some point – after all the baby boomers are gone – all of it will be digital,” he predicted.

“It’s just progress. As long as there are people and democracy and a free press, there will always be journalism and it will always be important,” Wilbur said.

Makings of a Vocation

After graduating from Hofstra University in 2001 with a degree in journalism, Stone went on to become an award-winning reporter, covering government, general interest, and sports beats for The Journal News’ weeklies division, Yorktown’s North County News, The Times Herald-Record, and other media outlets.

Examiner News has also garnered accolades from the New York Press Association for its editorials, sports coverage, and news writing.

Stone’s duties included hiring and managing staff, setting priorities, running the day-to-day stuff, and guiding the outlet’s general editorial focus.

Being in charge of the business side of things for nearly two decades took the native Long Islander away from his first calling – boots-on-the-ground reporting.

An occasional essayist for the publications, Stone had more recently authored a well-regarded investigative series that delved into challenges in the health industry. Other columns offered insights into not only the “boundaries of established science” but the “spiritual realm and near-death experiences.”

“There was a whole series of topics that I covered that reminded me of – not just the type of journalism I love – but how I wanted to be spending my days, ideally,” he says, adding: “The truth of the matter is that this transition only gets me part of the way there in terms of really recapturing that passion.”

Stone Shares

Stone recently met up with Halston Media at a local café where he reflected on the past, talked candidly about current circumstances, unveiled plans for a podcast, and expressed optimism about the future of the rebooted Examiner and of local journalism in general.

It all began in 2007 when Stone – only 29 and a reporter with no practical business experience other than working one summer in his family’s candy factory in Brooklyn – was suddenly seized by a burning desire to own his own newspaper.

He recalls sitting in his basement sketching out a “business plan” on a “tattered yellow legal pad.”

When he told his loving spouse, Alyson, about this grand scheme, she was like “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Stone said, adding: “I think she thought it was going to be a side hustle, hobby-type thing.”

Inspired perhaps by his father, a self-made Hungarian immigrant who followed his own path and prospered after coming to the United States six decades ago, Stone dug into his own pocket and spent a few hundred dollars to create a mockup.

He then sold advertising around it.

That revenue covered payroll and production costs. About 2,000 copies were printed.

Initially, there were two papers – one that served Mount Kisco and the other, nearby Pleasantville.

(It helped that he lived in the former community and that his in-laws had deep roots in the latter.)

Those strong connections, coupled with the fact that The Patent Trader’s demise had left a marked void in the marketplace, convinced Stone this it was time to take a giant leap.

(The Patent Trader folded in 2007 after 50 years of covering northern Westchester. Full disclosure: This reporter worked for the PT as a reporter and editor in Mount Kisco in the late 1970s to early 1980s.)

“I knew that – just from the standpoint of the product itself, also from a readership standpoint – it would be popular right out of the gate because it would be fulfilling a real need and desire for professionally reported, fact-checked news,” he said.

Examiner Media eventually sprouted four print editions -- The Examiner, The Northern Westchester Examiner, The Putnam Examiner, and The White Plains Examiner.

In the summer of 2021, it launched a new digital newsletter/publication after snagging funding and support by winning a competition hosted by Substack Local, a program designed to bolster local journalism.

Like other news outlets, Examiner Media has had to not only be resilient but creative and tenacious in order to stay afloat in an industry that’s slowly but surely coming apart at the seams.

When dailies started biting the dust right and left, it was print weeklies that bravely stepped up to fill in the void. Now – thanks to the internet -- even they are struggling to make ends meet.

After coming through the Great Recession intact early in its history, it seemed as if The Examiner’s toughest challenges were in “the rearview mirror,” Stone recalled.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the newspaper group found itself facing yet another existential threat.

Stone cut staff, consolidated content across editions, and held his nose and took a deep dive into the fundraising pool. Reader donations, journalism grants, and a loan helped keep the lights on. A paywall was considered but discarded as not having enough financial “horsepower” to do the job on its own.

The Examiner is free but also has paid subscribers, aka Examiner + members.

The set-up is not only a way for the community to support local journalism but a way for the outlet to deliver “extra value,” aka exclusive content and perks such as theater tickets, he said.

Stone thinks of it this way: “The main reason you should or shouldn’t sign up for $79 a year is a referendum on whether you want to support high quality journalism or not.”

From Probe to Podcast

Stone started probing the health care industry after hearing from a reader concerned about the arrival of Optum Inc.

Shortly after that first column hit the streets, Stone began receiving “an endless stream of unsolicited tips and suggestions.”

The series eventually took on a life of its own and “broadened out well beyond” the newspaper’s coverage area.

“Just given the nature of the internet and social media, the story really reached all corners of the county, so a lot of leads came -- not just from Westchester or Putnam, or even Dutchess or Long Island -- but from across the country,” Stone says.

His reporting included allegations that Optum had improperly sought “reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through unsupported and misleading diagnosis codes.”

Stone even managed to scoop the Wall Street Journal last year when he reported that that the U.S. Department of Justice had launched an anti-trust investigation into UnitedHealth Group Inc., a multinational, for-profit company specializing in health insurance (under the UnitedHealthcare brand) and health care services (as Optum).

His online article appeared on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. The paper version came out the next day. The WSJ mentioned Stone’s reporting in their own piece on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

This past December, after the brutal murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan made headlines, Sean Cannon, a Peabody-winning podcast producer and journalist based in Louisville was doing some research when he came across The Examiner’s coverage of United Healthcare/Optum.

He reached out to Stone via email, who, although he gets lots, figured that this one was something “not to ignore.”

They started talking.

Cannon drove out from Kentucky to Mount Kisco where he met Stone at a local hotel and spent a weekend taping him for a new national podcast, to be named “Sick Care.”

This preceded, Stone says, the crystallization of the newspaper’s “cash crisis.”

Besides Cannon and Stone, the two others collaborating on the project are Jane Marie, an award-winning journalist known for her podcast, The Dream, which explored “the scourge” of multi-level marketing schemes; and Heather Schroering, a Columbia Journalism School-trained investigative journalist and producer who worked on the popular podcasts “Joe Exotic” and a season of “Dr. Death.”

The first episode is expected to drop in March.

Of course, the podcast has financial potential, but for now Stone is “focused on making a great product.”

That kind of thinking harks back to the theory behind his once-fledgling media group.

Maybe: If you build it, they will come?

“I think that, with any creative endeavor, you don’t know whether it’s going to be a commercial success, but I’m confident it will be something that we’re proud of,” he says.

Hindsight is 20/20

Regrets? There’ve been a few but -- with apologies to Ol’ Blue Eyes – too few to mention.

When all the successes and failures are totted up, Stone’s still a dyed-in-the-wool newshound who just happened to have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

He has no plans to throw in the towel no matter what the future brings.

Stone says he feels so strongly about the importance of good local journalism that he’d gladly serve as a “passionate goodwill ambassador” for anyone self-sacrificing enough to carry that ink-stained banner forward.

For someone like him, it can feel a little weird to be the interviewee and not the interviewer.

So Stone had to pause to collect his thoughts before answering the question: “Was it all worth it?”

“Always, because the good, the bad, the ugly – all those battle scars – make you stronger,” he responded. “There have been so many rewarding, great experiences along the way. As a reporter who started a business, I’m grateful to have had the chance to build and develop this other muscle, one that I might not otherwise have been inclined to work on.”

So yes, taking that leap of faith back in 2007 was worth it.

“Because of that, I think I’ve become not just a better journalist, but a better person,” Stone said.