Charlotte, Vermont. Photo (cc) 2014 by Rene Rivers.
Charlotte, Vermont, is an affluent community of 3,700 people about 13 miles south of Burlington that will soon be covered by three local news organizations.
Yes, you read that correctly. Last month, VTDigger reported on turmoil at the town’s nonprofit newspaper, The Charlotte News. The editor, Chea Waters Evans, resigned because of what she regarded as unethical interference by the publisher and the board.
Now Evans will serve as the editor of a startup nonprofit news project, The Vermont Bridge, whose journalism will be distributed via a free Substack newsletter. Evans tells VTDigger’s James Finn, though, that her intent is not to compete with her former employer:
Our main goal is transparency. And not in a way where we want to compete with The Charlotte News. Their focus is having community contributors, while I just want to focus on hard news. They can continue doing what they’ve done well for decades.
Among the Bridge’s board members are VTDigger founder and editor-in-chief Anne Galloway and several high-profile journalists who had quit the News’ board in support of Evans.
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And about that third news source? There’s also The Citizen, a for-profit newspaper that’s part of a Vermont-based chain and that covers Charlotte and neighboring Hinesburg.
It is fair to say that Charlotte is not a news desert.
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