Note: My weekly media roundup, “News You Should View,” has taken the week off. I’ve been very busy with non-blog-related work lately. In particular, there’s been a lot of activity around my duties as a board member of The Hardwick Gazette. This post reflects that involvement and broader thoughts about the importance of local news, which is the bread and butter of “News You Should View.”
Local news has always mattered. It’s the only way we can keep in touch with our town and city governments, school boards, high school sports, arts, and community events, not to mention road construction, floods, fires, crashes, and crime. But it matters even more now, at this moment, than it ever has before.
That’s because larger media outlets, such as daily newspapers, radio and TV, have shrunk to an alarming degree. Local outlets, including weekly newspapers and digital-only operations, occupy what would otherwise be “news deserts” — places with little to no news coverage at all. These “deserts” would include most of Vermont if not for the valiant efforts of our local papers and digital outlets.
Take, for example, The Hardwick Gazette, a nonprofit whose governing board includes little ol’ me. The Gazette serves 11 communities from Plainfield to Craftsbury, from Wolcott to Cabot. The Gazette’s service area falls between the catchments of three longtime dailies: The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, The Newport Daily Express, and The St. Johnsbury Caledonian-Record. Each of those papers used to consistently reach beyond their home bases to cover the towns in between. They rarely do so anymore, because it’s all they can do to report on their core communities.
So for the residents of those 11 towns, it’s The Gazette or pretty much nothing at all.
At the same time, The Gazette is part of a national movement into nonprofit journalism. Ad sales just can’t sustain a significant news operation anymore. Nonprofit is the future. It’s a very promising future, but the movement is still in its infancy. Success or failure is in the balance.
After more than 130 years as a locally owned business, The Gazette became a community-operated nonprofit last year. It’s largely dependent on reader support. And it is in the middle of a major fundraising campaign this summer. It’s vital that this drive is a success, to get us through the coming months and build a solid financial foundation for the future.
If you live in The Gazette’s service area, I urge you to make a donation. If possible, become a monthly contributor at $5 or $10 a month, or more if you can afford it. If you live elsewhere, please donate to your local news outlet. Vermont is blessed with a large number of local papers and digital platforms with long and storied histories. All are struggling, either to succeed as for-profit businesses or as newly organized nonprofits.
It’s a difficult transition, and these organizations’ staffs aren’t necessarily equipped for the new challenges of running as a nonprofit. It’s a new and different skillset for print journalists. Besides, they’re working as hard as they can just to get the news out there.
At the same time, there are very promising developments all across the country. In June, I attended a national conference of the Institute for Nonprofit News, an organization dedicated to developing nonprofit journalism. I can’t tell you how many people I met who inspired me. They are putting their energy and creativity to work, and offering new ways to engage with their audiences and generate the income they need to give their communities the news coverage they deserve.
Just one example. I met the editor-in-chief of The Harpswell Anchor, a paper on the Maine coast. His service area has a population roughly twice that of The Gazette, which is still awfully small. (General consensus was that The Gazette was the smallest operation represented at the conference. I paid my own way, in case you were wondering.) And yet The Anchor has built a very strong financial base. They are a success, and they are paying back their donors’ investments each and every day with news coverage that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
It can be done. News outlets everywhere are coming up with ways to increase reader engagement, attract major donors and grant support, and even boost advertising in ways that an old-fashioned print newspaper couldn’t dream of. Some have even ventured back into print, and made it pay off.
But you, Dear Reader, are the key link in the chain. If you depend on the local weekly or digital outlet to find out what’s going on in your community, it’s time to close the circle by supporting the service you rely on. No more can you assume that advertisers will float the enterprise. They are part of the equation, but gone are the days when advertising was the single biggest source of funds for news.
It’s a new day. It’s full of promise. Please join in the effort, and help make it a reality.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
When Vermont Independent Media (VIM), publisher of the Commons in Brattleboro (and now also the Deerfield Valley News in Wilmington), was founded in 2004, we deliberately chose to become a 501c3 nonprofit, not so much because of the fundraising benefits, but so that it could not be readily bought and controlled by any outside entity. Instead, it would be owned by the community which it serves. Egregious control of our daily by an outside corporation was the very reason for our founding, after all.
At that time, it was a new concept. We had heard of one other outlet in California which was nonprofit, but we were never able to confirm this. It took many months of discussion, cajoling, insistence, pestering the IRS agent overseeing the application, until we finally convinced him that a newspaper can indeed fall under the requirements for getting that status. The coveted confirmation letter then arrived.
Now, it is routine, and hundreds of nonprofit media organizations dot the landscape. And as you say, it is an important way forward for the industry. We at VIM are pleased with the groundbreaking role we had there, and it has served us well. The fundraising benefits are apparent, as we continue to have widespread support of our community, knowing that we are part of the nonprofit sector. We also have many volunteers who do various operational tasks; they would likely not be there if VIM were a routine for-profit business, and they cross-pollinate with other local nonprofits.
more News You Should Watch Out For (hat tip to a. bechdel)
VERMONT’S LIEUTENAT GOVERNOR APPOINTED TO LEADERSHIP BOARD OF NATIONWIDE PEERS
Hope Rodgers gets his suit dry cleaned before he gives his keynote speech in December at Wherever. Cannabis remains illegal, as far as the feds are concerned, and I imagine TSA would find it highly amusing to detain him as he passed through security.
A curious turn of phrase by Mr. Aleshnick.
The Commons….
“…owned by the community which it serves.“
In a conversation with the Commons editor a few years ago, it was inquired as to the dearth of reporting on State documented child abuse at Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster, the editor stated: Well, when a news outlet publishes a scoop, typically no other other news outlet will “touch it.”
The Commons editor was referring to VTDiggers 2020 self-styled investigative report into a culture of decades of documented child abuse at Kurn Hattin, up until as recently as 2019, not to mention abuse reported publicly as recently as August of 2024.
The editor of Seven Days reflected the same comment as the Commons editor.
The VPO referenced the NY Time slogan recently, “All the news that’s fit to print.” Their motto was adopted in 1897 by then-publisher Adolph S. Ochs to distinguish the newspaper from “yellow journalism” which often featured sensationalized and inaccurate stories. The slogan emphasizes a commitment to impartial and quality reporting.
Ironic, huh.
Vermont media’s motto should therefore read: All the news that Vermont editors deem fit to print.
The Commons motto, as Barry has reflected, would then appropriately, or more accurately read:
“Owned by the Westminster Vermont Approved Independent School which it serves.”