VTDigger just wrapped up a successful fundraiser with a strong promise: “Reader support will power statewide election coverage, daily news and investigative reporting across Vermont.”

Yeah, well, none of that is happening. Election coverage has been meager, daily news is thin on the ground, and investigative reporting is a thing of the past.

Let’s make it clear that I WANT VTDIGGER TO FLOURISH. We need a strong, vibrant VTDigger as a foundational piece of our media ecosystem. My family continues to give monthly, and we have no plans to change that. But we definitely feel like we’re not getting our money’s worth, and that VTDigger is falling short of its mission.

I went back over the past 12 weekdays (activity is lower on weekends) using Digger’s “Latest Stories” page, and the results were depressing. A total of 38 original stories were posted, not counting reposts from other outlets. That’s an average of 3 1/4 stories per day including three pieces by Carly Berlin, a reporter shared with Vermont Public.

What’s more, out of 38 stories, I would classify eight as features, not hard news. Fall foliage, the Tunbridge Fair, a once-banned children’s book, a profile of a Vermont filmmaker, stuff like that.

On the other hand, try to find content that meets Digger’s fundraising promise of “statewide election coverage” and “investigative reporting.” I counted four campaign-related stories (when we’re in the midst of the general election season) and nothing that resembles investigative reporting. You know, actual digging.

Two of the four campaign stories were about the two recent opinion polls. Both were written by Tierney Flavin, a VTDigger intern who’s been there less than a month. Nothing against interns, but they shouldn’t be taking point on your election coverage. Her stories were adequate but Seven Days’ coverage was much better.

Speaking of interns, Digger has two of them, Flavin and Emma White. Together they accounted for eight stories in 12 days, a very respectable pace. So the actual staff of paid journalists was cranking out roughly 2 1/2 stories per day.

How many paid journalists? According to Digger’s “Meet Our Team” page, it’s 10 1/2; Auditi Guha is listed as a reporter and editor.

That’s not a lot of stories for a staff of that size. Maybe the reporters are tied up in meetings with editors. Digger employs a total of 8 1/2 editors, which seems awfully high for such a small newsroom. As one veteran newsman asked me, “What are they doing all day?”

I don’t know if this is the influence of Digger’s new CEO Brendan Kinney, formerly a top manager at Vermont Public. But Digger is trending toward the public media staffing model, which tends to be top-heavy with editors and management types. In the case of an outlet like Vermont Public, there are some good reasons for that. Financially, there’s much more going on — more money coming in and going out. Plus, they produce content in multiple media — prose, digital, audio, video, long- and short-form journalism, broadcasts, podcasts — and their product has to stand alongside national content from NPR and PBS. That’s a high standard to meet.

Digger, on the other hand, is almost exclusively a print product. It shouldn’t be that time-consuming. It shouldn’t require a nearly 1:1 ratio of editors to reporters.

Which brings me back to the organization’s mission:

The mission of the Vermont Journalism Trust [Digger’s parent organization] is to produce rigorous journalism that explains complex issues, promotes public accountability and fosters democratic and civic engagement.

The Trust reports an even more rigorous mission in its annual filings with the Internal Revenue Service:

Information is power. The mission of the Vermont Journalism Trust and VTDigger.org is to give that power to Vermonters by making complex public policy issues readily accessible, by holding government accountable and by giving readers opportunities to become active participants in democracy.

That reads like an artifact of the Anne Galloway era. It sure feels off the mark regarding the VTDigger of 2today. But really, the VTDigger of today is doing a lousy job of fulfilling either mission. Its name also seems like a relic of the days when Galloway spearheaded coverage of the EB-5 scandal.

Digger’s entire beat used to be the Statehouse, state government and politics. Now, a single reporter, Shawn Robinson, covers both government and politics. Some reporters cover policy beats that bring them occasionally to the Statehouse, while others are on geographically-assigned beats that offer coverage of different regions but dilute Digger’s ability to bring sunlight to the corridors of power.

Some have blamed the unionization of Digger’s newsroom for the lower productivity. I’m sure it has increased costs and imposed tighter limits on workloads. But the union was created because Digger was a terrible place to work and had been for years. The union isn’t going away; it’s up to management to create a cooperative relationship with its workforce. They are all, fundamentally, on the same team. The union has no interest in killing its golden goose, especially in such tough times for the news business.

Much of Digger’s productivity decline is due to financial constraints. We know, from its annual filings with the IRS, that Digger is recovering from some bad times. The last year Digger finished in the black was 2021; since then, the losses have been $1 million in 2022, $772,000 in 2023, and a relatively encouraging $76,000 in 2024. Net assets have plunged by more than half during that period. Its 2025 filing is due at the end of October.

We know that Kinney was hired, in large part, because he was a key player in growing Vermont Public’s donor base. I wish him all the luck in the world. I hope he’s the leader they need. He’s only been on the job for a few months, so it’s far too soon to tell how he will fare. But right now, things are not looking great at VTDigger. The output is underwhelming, which makes it harder to attract the clicks and, more crucially, the donors.

If Digger is morphing from a watchdog prowling state government into a general-interest publication, what’s the unique selling proposition? Digger is competing with whole worlds of content-production entities, from The New York Times and NPR to local news outlets like The Commons and The Other Paper. It’s a crowded marketplace, and Digger’s offerings aren’t as distinctive as they used to be. That’s a big problem, and I don’t think more of the same is going to turn things around.