Tag Archives: The Hardwick Gazette

News You Should View: The Last of His Kind?

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Apologies for skipping a week. Between Nicholas Deml and Sam Douglass, there was a lot going on. But here we are with another collection of news content worth your attention. Starting with a bit of sad news.

Remember when every newspaper had local columnists? They occupied a space between opinion and reportage. They were familiar figures to readers, and had their fingers on the pulse of community life. As a news consumer in southern Michigan, I got to know and appreciate Detroit Free Press columnists like Hugh McDiarmid (politics), Neal Rubin (entertainment, also penned the Gil Thorp syndicated comic for many years), and Bob Talbert (fluff and nonsense with a purpose). Those days are long gone, as newspapers have cut and cut and cut until there’s practically nothing left.

One survivor of the good old days: Jim Kenyon of The Valley News. I’ve been reading his stuff since I moved to this region in 2000. And now, at the age of 66, he’s retiring. I haven’t seen this reported in his own paper yet, but The Dartmouth has published an exit interview with him. I’m sorry to see Kenyon go, especially since I’m certain that he will not be replaced. He’s a luxury item in a bare-bones industry.

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News You Should View, Belated Edition

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This edition of NYSV features content posted last week by Vermont media outlets. I did most of the groundwork last weekend, and then other stuff intervened — a pair of more timely items and a bit of semi-elective surgery, to be specific. So here it is, finally. And once again, these pieces were posted in the last full week of September. Mostly.

Hey look, another local newspaper! Somehow I had never heard of The North Star Monthly, published in Danville, Vermont. That is, until it won a big fat award from the New England Newspaper Association. The Monthly took home NENPA’s “Newspaper of the Year” award in the Specialty Publications category. I will definitely add it to my list of Vermont media sources.

Other Vermont publications receiving hardware included The Vermont Standard of Woodstock, which will feature a bit later in this post, and Usual Suspects VTDigger and Seven Days. Vermont dailies were shut out of the awards for Daily Newspaper which, considering the quality of most of ’em, isn’t much of a surprise. The closest dailies to get NENPA recognition were The Keene Daily Sentinel (Keene, NH) and The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA).

The Old Guy’s Still Got It. If Mike Donoghue did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. The former Burlington Free Press fixture is now a freelancer who focuses mainly on cops and courts, and has a knack for swooping in and grabbing scoops from under the noses of established outlets. This time he scored a pair of stories about Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer, commissioned and published by The Vermont Standard.

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A Tactical Retreat for a Local Paper

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Following rapidly on the heels of The Brandon Reporter’s suspension of activity comes word from The Hinesburg Record of a move designed to save it from extinction.The Record has announced it will discontinue its monthly print edition and pursue a digital-only strategy as a weekly.

The nonprofit’s Board cited multiple reasons, some familiar and some perhaps less so. Printing papers consumed three-quarters of its budget; more and more people are getting their news online; and delivery had become increasingly problematic due to the decline of the U.S. Postal Service: “Many residents get The Record 10 days to two weeks after it is supposed to arrive,” the Board wrote.

This decision illustrates one of the many unanswered questions facing local news outlets: To print… or not to print?

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Overdue News You Should View

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This feature, which was once published with plausible reliability once a week, continues to break its own schedule with distressing regularity. No excuses, not even a promise to get back to weekly status, I’ll just press forward and do the best I can.

Not to say there’s been a shortage of quality content worth your attention. Our local outlets (and a pair of podcasts) are still hard at work — despite the bad news about the Brandon Reporter and a setback for the Hinesburg Record, which merits a post of its own. Meanwhile, let’s get to the top-shelf offerings, shall we?

If you’re homeless, do you really deserve to own stuff? The usually big-hearted town of Brattleboro has been removing encampments of the unhoused on the ever-popular principle of “If you can’t see poverty, it doesn’t exist.” And in the process, as The Commons’ C.B. Hall reports, there are signs of a cavalier attitude toward the belongings of The Removed. Larry Barrows, survivor of three strokes, lost everything he had via official town action, including prescription medications and “My kid’s Bible, my kid’s photos. It’s devastating.”

Town Health Officer Charles Keir III, depicted in this story as a real piece of work, insisted that during the removals, “I don’t remember seeing any personal belongings that we deemed as salvageable.” He must have an interesting definition of “personal belongings” because he acknowledged that tents are not considered personal property. “We destroy them,” he told Hall. “They go to the landfill.” Well, isn’t that special.

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Local News Matters (In Lieu of News You Should View)

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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.

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See that “Donate” Button?

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As I write this, it’s about to be Giving Tuesday, a time to give to people, causes and entities worthy of your support. I’m not telling you The Vermont Political Observer is worthy; that’s your call. Regular readers are already spending their time and attention here. I’m hoping you will tangibilize (word?) that decision by kicking in a little coin.

Or, as Reverend Ike would prefer, some “quiet money.” Not the noisy stuff, the quiet kind that falls silently into the collection plate.

Donations are gratefully received via the, what a coincidence, “Donate” feature accessible by this link or near the top of this website. You can make a one-time gift or set up a monthly contribution. I like to think I deliver something of value, consistently posting three or four times a week — a very high productivity rate in the blogosphere.

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