The design for Vtdigger.org features an old mahogany desk that once was owned by a Boston Globe editor and the typewriter keys from my grandmother’s old Royal. We are using these symbols of a bygone era to evoke traditional journalistic values—fairness, accuracy, thoroughness and the public’s right to know.
Most of the people behind this nonprofit enterprise are former print journalists. While we miss the ink on our fingers, we are taking advantage of cheaper, greener, more efficient technologies to bring in-depth reporting on business, government and community life in Vermont to your doorstep via the new vehicles—RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter and Google searches. These are merely mechanisms for delivering content; in the end content is king.
About the design
First off, let me say thank you to the Vtdigger.org designer—Josh Larkin—for contributing a hero’s labor here. The design is unlike any other in the news business; it is distinctive in its graphic clarity and sophistication. We believe it communicates Vtdigger.org’s unique position in the Vermont news landscape as the only media outlet dedicated exclusively to in-depth coverage of statewide issues.
- Subscribe option
- If you want e-mail alerts whenever content is posted on Vtdigger.org, you must subscribe to the site. This automatic subscription service is similar to Google alerts; it enables you to control how often you want to receive emails from Vtdigger.org and enables you to control the kind of content you want to receive. If you are only interested in the gubernatorial race, for example, you can select that single category when you subscribe. Please visit our subscription page for more details and instructions about receiving email notifications about our published content.
- New fonts
- A number of readers found the Courier font we previously used difficult to read so we have changed the text to the sans serif typeface Tahoma. The headlines are now in Palatino.
- Teasers
- The new front page presents dozens of teasers to Vtdigger.org stories. The newest reports and information are posted in the slider and three slots underneath. The most recent posts by news section are listed at the bottom.
- New navigation tools
- We hope you’ll find it easy to find all the stories on your favorite topics under our news sections—the State of the State (government news), Business and Opinion. Each of these news sections has one or more subsections. The dairy crisis series, for example, falls under Business. The video clips of Con Hogan’s recent speech about health care costs and the stories about H1N1 and the Vermont State Hospital can be found under Health, a subsection of State of the State.
- Space for business sponsorships
- We have opened up multiple prominent places on the site’s pages for business sponsorship banners. Please call 802-441-1016 or email vtdigger@gmail.com for details.
About the content
- To learn more about Vtdigger.org’s mission, business model, funding and approach to reader engagement, spend some time exploring our updated About area of the site.
- Citizen journalism project. We are looking for volunteers who are interested in learning how to cover community news and campaign events for Vtdigger.org. We will provide training and editorial guidance. If you’re interested, send an e-mail to vtdigger@gmail.com.
- New news sections
- Vt. Guber ‘010 – We have been covering the early gubernatorial forums with video footage. That material is here, and we will begin posting press releases from the campaigns this week. In the near future, we will be running in-depth profiles and analysis pieces about the candidates and their records on issues.
- Politicker – You’ll find stories about other statewide candidates, political developments and press releases from the parties in this section. The video clips from the state party conventions are posted here.
- Living Standards – In this new section, we will be running stories and primary source content on issues that affect Vermonters’ quality of life. You’ll find the Consumer Watchdog subsection and the Digger-dogooder material under Living Standards.
- Opinion – We are expanding our commentary section. If you have an opinion about state policies, taxes, budget cuts, business practices, poverty, agriculture, politics, unemployment—the potential topics are probably endless—we want to hear from you. There is no length limit—we judge commentaries by the quality of the content and the clarity of the writing. Please send your submissions to vtdigger@gmail.com.
- Digger Digest – In this section, we will post press releases from state government, nonprofits and businesses in this section that address our coverage beats: business, government and community-of-life issues. Please send press releases to vtdigger@gmail.com.
—Anne Galloway, editor Vtdigger.org
