CommonWealth magazine plays increasingly important role as government watchdog

As a publication owned by a nonprofit organization (Boston think tank MassINC), CommonWealth is a shining local example of a growing trend in an era of steep cost-cutting at the country’s big major metro papers. Nonprofit news-gathering organizations are often picking up the slack, particularly with time-consuming investigative pieces.

CommonWealth has long been considered a must-read by the state’s political elite, even if it felt like homework at times (think of the magazine as the subtitled art-house flick to the Boston Herald’s popcorn blockbuster).

But CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl, a former Globe consumer reporter, has worked to liven up the pages since taking the job two-and-a-half years ago – and to break big investigative stories the way a daily newspaper would.