We were pleased with the turnout at the Gazette’s conversation with Greensboro this past Sunday at Highland Center for the Arts. Most who attended filled out a survey, giving us 21 points of view to help us better understand what appeals to those readers who came to talk with us.
While we didn’t ask what was most important about the gathering, we suspect the Jasper Hill cheeses, Hill Farmstead Brewery samples and Wilson Farm ice cream and slightly rainy afternoon had some effect.
GBO Community Conv
photo by Norma Spaulding
Northeast Kingdom Pubic Journalism Board Chair Stefanie Cravedi introduced herself, then talked about the brief history of its work as publisher of The Hardwick Gazette. Our nonprofit Gazette mission began in December 2023, just 17 months ago.
She then introduced me and I talked about how we collect information for the content that appears each week and how we structure the stories to give readers most of the information in the first three to five paragraphs, with background and other information following for those interested in the details and story behind the story.
I then gave everyone a walk-through of The Gazette website, showing what’s where, how our paper can be accessed online and downloaded as a PDF.
Quite a few useful suggestions were made, particularly about creating easily accessed answers to frequently asked questions, which we will begin to work on, using the outline of my tour as a guide.
I’m glad one of our visitors asked about our finances because, though the gathering was primarily aimed at our news, events and editorial content, it was useful to share some of our ongoing financial challenges. Not unlike many nonprofits, we have lots more we could do than our funding allows at any given moment. We hope these gatherings build a relationship with the communities we serve and thus begin to set us on a more sustainable foundation as our board and organization matures.
It’s significant to note that most of the people who came to talk with us were near, or past retirement age. That mirrors what we know about our audience from engagement on social media accounts. We did have one younger person who said they don’t read the paper and volunteered to help, so perhaps we can gain insight into ways to appeal to that segment of the local population in further conversations.
A comment was made at the end of the gathering about the possibility of adding some sort of advice or etiquette column, which is an interesting suggestion, as I said at the time, because I find myself turning to that column at the back of one of the Vermont statewide printed papers first. Perhaps others do as well and today one of the folks who joined us Sunday stopped by the office and offered to work on a health column that might include advice.
We enjoyed seeing and hearing the reactions of people to old printed editions of the Gazette we handed out to peruse. Many took home our new euro-style magnet and we look forward to seeing area vehicles sporting them.
We haven’t had time to look through the surveys, but heard from many at the event that it seemed valuable to them and look forward to sharing what we learn.
We’ll have a tent near the Jeudevine Library at this weekend’s Hardwick Springfest on Saturday where you can stop by to say hello and fill out a survey.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
