Carly Berlin will join Vermont Public and VTDigger as a Report For America corps member in an effort to expand coverage of housing and infrastructure in Vermont, the organizations announced Wednesday.
In an unprecedented collaboration between two of Vermont’s leading news outlets, Berlin will cover two of the most vexing challenges facing the state: the availability, affordability and condition of housing, as well as aging infrastructure that is no longer serving its residents.
"Carly is an experienced and accomplished reporter, and I think she is the ideal person to take on this beat. We are eager to start working with her and our friends at VTDigger to enhance our collective coverage of these vital issues,” said Mark Davis, senior editor at Vermont Public.
Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities across the United States and its territories. It is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.
“Given the pressures facing local and state journalism throughout the country, we’re fortunate to be able to invest new resources in covering critical issues in Vermont,” said Paul Heintz, editor-in-chief of VTDigger. “We know our readers want us to deepen our commitment to covering Vermont’s housing crisis and infrastructure challenges. We’re excited to work with Carly, Vermont Public and Report for America to make that happen.”
Berlin is among more than 60 journalists selected for the 2023 corps. They will work in newsrooms from Puerto Rico to North Dakota. She is the only new corps member who will be reporting from Vermont.
Berlin is currently a metro reporter at New Orleans Public Radio in Louisiana, reporting daily news, features, and podcast segments focused on housing, transportation and city government. Prior to that she worked as a Gulf Coast Correspondent for Southerly, a nonprofit news organization that covers the environment in the Southeast.
“Beyond talented reporters and photojournalists, we actively sought out individuals who see journalism as a calling, who want to make a difference within their communities,” said Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement at Report for America. “Together, our early-career and experienced corps members will produce tens of thousands of articles on critically undercovered topics—schools, government, healthcare, the environment, communities of color, and more.”
Berlin will start her two-year appointment at Vermont Public and VTDigger in July 2023. Her work will be published by both outlets. Report for America, Vermont Public and VTDigger will share the cost of the position. (To support this investment in emerging journalists and coverage of housing and infrastructure, you can contribute to Vermont Public by emailing philanthropy@vermontpublic.org and VTDigger here.)
Both Vermont news organizations have collaborated with Report for America in the past. The national nonprofit has helped VTDigger invest in coverage of Bennington, Rutland, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, and it has helped Vermont Public offer coverage of the Upper Valley and to launch the daily news podcast The Frequency.
