In a country where the federal government increasingly seems to be putting its finger on the scale of truth and freedom, the Know your News project of the New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) comes at an appropriate time.
Beginning with Constitution Day, last Wednesday, the project that will help us bring you information about your right to know what the government is doing, through Freedom of Information and Open Meeting law, explore the differences between news, opinion and “sponsored content,” distinctions made all the fuzzier by the torrent of online data and information that now pours into our homes.
In an Another Opinion column this week, Gene Policinski introduces the project, which The Hardwick Gazette will be participating in for the next four weeks. He writes, “do not miss the good news as news initiatives of all kinds rescue news operations facing financial death across New England and other areas of the U.S., staving off new news deserts. Print and digital news startups, both traditional and nonprofit, are restoring or replacing some local news starved areas.”
The Hardwick Gazette is one of those news operations that faced almost certain closure following years of decline beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic. In December 2024 it had a paid sports reporter and photographer, but no news reporter (except its owner and a few community journalists) and almost no advertising.
Rescued by Northeast Kingdom Public Journalism (NEKPJ) in January 2024, The Gazette has now survived for 21 months as a nonprofit, offering each weekly issue free to all.
Last year two large gifts covered 25% of The Gazette’s $10,000 monthly operating costs. Late last year and into this year, smaller gifts from many hundreds of supporters and a growing number of monthly supporters, has kept it going as advertising has increased somewhat, though not yet enough.
The Gazette’s news and human interest content has thrived during this time with help from interns at Hazen Union High School, People’s Academy, Green Mountain Technology and Career Center, the University of Vermont, Vermont State University students at its Castleton and Johnsbon campuses, and more community journalists bringing you news of their towns.
In January we hired one of those interns as a half-time reporter, who earned her keep.
News coverage has benefited immeasurably with content shared by other news outlets: VTDigger, the UVM Community News Service, The Bridge, Cabot Chronicle, News & Citizen, and others less local.
We’ve worked hard to make The Gazette’s community section, with its meeting and events calendars, your go-to place for local activities in 11 towns that otherwise appear separately in town calendars, library calendars, calendars for community organizations, Front Porch Forum, social media and elsewhere.
Having demonstrated that’s possible, the responsibility now lies with each organization to keep The Gazette updated with new events and schedule changes.
We’ve streamlined and cut technology costs in half, while improving our weekly newsletter and online presentation.
Every week 1,700 people receive our email newsletter, 1,200 people open it to see the front page and headlines and about 700 click to read an article or download the full PDF edition.
On average, 2,000 people come to our website each week, with thousands more when we’ve offered special coverage of local events. Roughly 6,000 people see our Facebook posts each week, with 12,000 visiting during our live coverage of a shooting last April, and almost as many seeing our flood coverage in July 2024.
We print a few copies that can be seen at area libraries in Hardwick, Cabot, Craftsbury, Greensboro, Walden, Wolcott and Woodbury. Copies are available to read in Hardwick at Front Seat Coffee, Buffalo Mountain Market, the Village Restaurant, Nikki the Barber at The Clip Joint, The Civic Standard and the town manager’s office and in Cabot at The Den at Harry’s Hardware.
We’ve discovered many people are not aware that The Gazette continues as a digital publication and ask each of you to share that news. Anyone can subscribe for free at hardwickgazette.org/subscribe/ to receive each week’s issue via email. While you’re signing up there, you can make an optional donation to help keep this area from becoming a news desert.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
