About Us

Who We Are

The Howard Courier is a local web-based news and information platform providing news and information about Howard County, Maryland. The Courier is a part of Maryland Newspapers LLC, founded by Ricardo Whitaker, a resident of Howard County since 2009. Maryland Newspapers is independent and completely non-aligned with any political group, business or foundation. One hundred percent of our funds come from the founder and individual contributors and subscribers.

Our Vision

Maryland Newspapers has a simple and singular vision. We endeavor to provide real journalism to our readers. In particular, we want to make Howard County residents believers in local journalism by providing comprehensive reporting without favoritism to any person or group. Our independence is key to that vision. We want to reach every resident and business owner in the County by providing news and information of interest to every segment of this County. We want a highly informed and knowledgeable populace in Howard County. We endeavor to be the authoritative and trusted news source for Howard County.

In respect to our vision beyond providing superior journalism to the area, we would like to play a part in helping Howard County thrive as a forward moving and safe community. In particular we promote education and stable families through our various partnerships and our upcoming support for Raising the Bar, a group originally started by Ricardo Whitaker and Jason McCoy, former principal of Cradlerock School, when it was a combined elementary and middle school. The concept brings parents outside of the PTSA bubble, teachers, administrators and other community partners together to brainstorm and implement methods to obliterate the so-called education Achievement Gap (as it was called in 2011).

Goals

We want to be as transparent and responsive as possible. As journalists and humans we WILL make mistakes. When we do, we endeavor to own those mistakes and correct them. We truly want to listen to our readers whether we agree or disagree. Having open and honest discourses are not impossible.

Goal #1 for us involves building a web-based newspaper that does the hard work of struggling to remain unbiased in a very biased and partisan environment. We do not want to pick sides. Rather we prefer to tell both sides of a story as often as possible. Now, we know that sometimes, the subjects of our articles will not be fully forthcoming. In fact, sometimes subjects simply fabricate to get points across. We will look for that and do our best to report what is true and avoid reporting lies to our readers. It will be a work in progress.

Goal #2 involves engaging in the struggle to cover every aspect of life in Howard County. For sure, we will cover stuff that we do not like. Well, it’s not our job to like what we cover. If it’s news or information, then it falls within our domain.

Goal #3 is about us evolving into the newspaper that everyone wants to read. The way we accomplish this goal is by engaging Goal #2 by covering the gamut of life and work in Howard County. We are beginning in Columbia, by working towards creating dedicated news coverage for every village. No matter where someone lives in Columbia, he or she will be able to discover news about the neighborhood, the village and Columbia at-large. Do we want the same for Ellicott City, Elkridge and Marriottsville? Yes. We want it for every segment of the County.

Not only do we want expansive geographical coverage, but we are striving towards all other demographics like age, race, special interests and much more. We want to show the best side of our high schools while not shying away from the downside. We want elementary age children and senior citizens to engage with our newspaper. We are steadily working on our comprehensive coverage plan.

Goal #4 involves sustainability and permanence. Quite frankly, the idea of creating an independent newspaper with no outside money is a bit crazy, but then that’s how we are at Maryland Newspapers — a bit crazy. Newspapers in 2025, generally speaking, are not profitable businesses. Newspapers still exist today because journalists have a passion for informing and telling stories — not because newspapers represent a stellar business model. With that in mind, we are dedicated to the forever concept where this newspaper will not die and also will not be sold. That only happens with full support from the community.

We aim to have 10,000 readers engaged with our website on a daily basis. We expect to see new subscribers (members) coming on board at at rate of 20 per day. We are looking to see daily downloads of our mobile app at a rate of 20 per day also. These are the statistics that we determined will help us survive 2025 and beyond.

To achieve Goal #4, we have turned on our paywall, which restricts accessibility to premium content. We define premium content as any article where the publisher paid a reporter and photographer to cover a story. News is not free. After years of studying the issue, we determined that for Howard County, the best approach would be a paid subscriber system. If the people truly want real journalism they would surely be willing to pay a small fee to enable them to be fully informed. Our monthly fee is just $3.99, but members pay less if they subscribe for the entire year. We envision making the fee lower once we reach a high level of engagement and a large number of steady subscribers.

Our Products

Maryland Newspapers LLC operates Howard Courier and Guilford Gazette. The Gazette began in 2011 as a print newspaper that covered news and information in the Guilford area of Howard County. That coverage spread to Savage, North Laurel, Kings Contrivance, and Jessup. There was a lack of continuity with Guilford Gazette, but it had a loyal following, which led to the creation of Howard Courier, which began in 2024 to provide news and information coverage for all of Howard County. We will expand the “Our Products” section at a later time.

Our Service Area

Currently, our coverage area is Howard County, located in central Maryland with close proximity to Baltimore to the north and Washington, DC to the south.

Demographics

Howard County Demographics (Various sources 2021 – 2023)

Population: 334,529, Under 5: 6%, Under 18: 19%, 65+: 14%; White: 47.7%; Black: 20.2%;  Asian: 19.8%; Latino: 7.6%; Other: 4.6%;

Bachelor’s Degree 25+: 60%;

Households: 119,230; Per Capita Income: $65,860; Median Household Income: $140,971

 


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