Carroll is the Herald’s first newsroom hire since it and The Times Argus in Barre were sold to Reade Brower and Chip Harris in mid-September. According to Herald Editor Rob Mitchell, in addition to serving as night editor Carroll will “help with newsroom workflow and a few other projects.”
The Herald has lost a handful of editors and reporters since early August, when it published a front-page story on the company’s financial challenges and mounting discord between staff and upper management.
Asked if there were more hires on the horizon, Mitchell wrote in an email, “We’re still looking at a few other positions, but have to get through some system changes, and a few website upgrades. So, that’s it for now.”
Carroll, who grew up in Lebanon, New Hampshire, said he has family in Rutland. His mother lived there for more than 20 years, he said, and his sisters used to work at the Midway Diner on South Main Street, which closed in 2013.
“It’s a great area,” Carroll said. “A really lively place. I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Carroll got his start in journalism as a radio host in Lebanon covering local politics, news and sports in New Hampshire and Vermont.
He went on to work as a reporter for the Valley News and then as editor of the Eagle Times in Claremont, New Hampshire. At The Telegraph, one of New Hampshire’s largest newspapers, he was editorial page editor and then executive managing editor.
He said his resignation in September came after his publisher requested he remove information from an article about the paper’s move to a new building in downtown Nashua. The article included details about the sale price and assessed value of the property.
“Leaving those folks behind was very hard,” Carroll said of his colleagues at The Telegraph. “But at the end of the day I had to be able to look in the mirror.”
Sandy Bucknam took over as managing editor of The Telegraph after Carroll left. “He was great to work with,” Bucknam said. “And I’m certainly very happy that he has been able to find another position. And I know he will do great there.”
Carroll said he was drawn to the Herald’s legacy as one of the leading papers in the region. Until it was sold to Brower and Harris, the Herald was one of the oldest family-owned newspapers in continuous operation in the country.
“When I started in journalism the Herald was the dominant paper in southern Vermont,” Carroll said.
Though Carroll didn’t meet the paper’s new owners, he said, he is confident of their commitment to quality journalism.
Vermont and Rutland in particular, he said, face many of the same challenges he addressed during his time as a reporter and editor in New Hampshire, including opioid use, affordable housing, public transportation and pension planning, a topic at the heart of Rutland’s current budget debate.
“My job will be to come in, put my shoulder to the wheel and try to put out the best paper we can,” Carroll said.
