Last week’s VTDigger/Vermont Public joint report about the state of Vermont’s $789 million housing splurge and its disappointing impact was a true journalistic tour de force. It was a deep dive into an important story. It involved a ton of work, and it provided real insight into Vermont’s housing crisis. Kudos to both organizations and to co-authors Carly Berlin (Digger/VP shared housing reporter) and Erin Petenko (Digger data reporter extraordinaire).

Two thumbs up, ten out of ten, five stars on Yelp, no notes.

But there is a dark side to this, and it has to do with the ever-diminishing state of journalism in Vermont.

Stories like this were never frequent, but they used to be a lot more common than they are now. Multiple organizations had strong enough newsrooms that they could do the occasional deep dive while reliably filling the ol’ news hole every day. The Burlington Free Press had three reporters at the statehouse; Now they barely have three full stop. The Times Argus and Rutland Herald shared a three-person Capitol Bureau. Seven Days had three reporters at the Statehouse. Digger had a larger newsroom whose efforts were focused primarily on state government and policy. The Associated Press capably covered the basics, so other media outlets could deploy their own people as they saw fit and carry AP stories on routine events like press conferences.

All those outlets and more could, at least occasionally, tackle investigative pieces, conduct and uncover stories through public records requests, and produce thoughtful examinations of issues and government performance.

By contrast, look at this housing story.

Our two healthiest, or should I say least depleted, news outlets had to join forces to produce this piece. Each of them sacrificed that most precious of commodities — a real scoop — because neither was able to shoulder the burden alone.

But wait, there’s more.

Berlin covers the housing beat. She has done yeoman’s work on the housing shortage and the homelessness crisis, two of the most consequential and thorny issues facing Vermont. And yet neither of our two leading news entities could manage to maintain a housing reporter of their own.

But wait, there’s more.

Berlin is a Report for America journalist. RFA provides reporters to news outlets and covers a goodly portion of their salary. The usual deal is 50% of a reporter’s cost for one year and either one-third or one-quarter of the cost in year two. After that, the RFA assignment is over.

To sum up: VTDigger and Vermont Public had to combine resources and get an RFA reporter at a bargain rate in order to provide decent coverage of the housing issue and produce this significant scoop, which would otherwise have gone unreported.

It’s another measure of how shallow and shrunken our journalism pool has become. That’s sad, and worrying. And we’re still trying to figure out how to keep the shrinkage from continuing.