American historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore recently appeared on Preet Bharara’s podcast, “Stay Tuned.”
After listening to an hour of discussion about the state of our democracy — and the threats facing it — I was feeling that sense of dejection that comes with thinking about the Civil War, insurrection attempts and what it all means for the times in which we live.
Toward the end of the podcast, Bharara asked Lepore to name one thing she is optimistic about. After giving a nod to the good work being done by local and state governments, she added, “we’re on the edge of a resurgence of local news, and new attention and new humility on the part of the national news media around what local really means.”
“I happen to be a fan, for instance, of the Vermont Digger,” Lepore said, describing the news outlet to her national audience. “I think they do tremendous reporting on almost no money.”
She said it perfectly. When friends and family ask me how things are at VTDigger, I struggle to sum up all that we have in the works. There’s so much to say, I often don’t know where to start (and when to stop talking). Our reporters not only cover breaking news such as natural disasters and key developments in state and local government, they’re simultaneously working on heavily researched, long-term investigative pieces. They cover policy changes and take the time to show how those policies affect real people. Our newsroom leadership makes tough calls each day on what we can cover given the resources we have. They do it expertly, with the utmost thoughtfulness, to tell important stories and best serve our readers. And our small revenue and operations team does the work of departments twice their size, standing up the many systems and processes it takes to run a digital news organization that is also a not-for-profit, as well as the complex technology, tracking and accounting tasks that come with this.
When I look at organizations in other industries with similar staffing levels, their budgets are often much larger. The “tremendous reporting” we’re able to do on “almost no money” is nothing short of remarkable.
I like to dream about what VTDigger could do if even more readers supported our work. We could investigate more news tips, cover more stories, interview more people and host more events. We could help train more interns and file more public records requests. We could host a democracy and ideas festival, news trivia nights, and convene our community to talk about issues such as housing, climate and public safety.
But we need financial support to continue the level of coverage Vermonters need and deserve, let alone expand our coverage.
While we didn’t quite meet our Annual Fund Drive goal, it’s not too late to close the gap and support VTDigger’s journalism so the stories you need to read get reported and published. Every donation we receive helps ensure VTDigger can continue to produce the news you rely on — and the bright future we envision.
In Bharara’s podcast, you could hear the optimism in Lepore’s voice when she talked about VTDigger and the resurgence of local journalism. “I think there are news organizations like that all over the country that are doing fantastic and exciting things,” she said.
I know her words to be true. Thanks to donations from readers like you, there is cause for optimism during difficult times. VTDigger keeps Vermont connected, holds government to account and gives readers tools to participate in our democracy.
No one can predict tomorrow, but historians can help us connect the present to the past, and what that could mean for the future. As we head into 2024, knowing that VTDigger is held up as a beacon of hope when our democracy feels threatened is encouraging. I took it as prescience when Lepore said, “And I think they’re on the edge of something great.”
With gratitude,
Sky Barsch
CEO, VTDigger
