A small group of residents from Brandon and Pittsford are trying to ensure their towns continue to get local news.
Financial challenges forced the Brandon Reporter to shut down after its final print edition on Oct. 1, said Steven Jupiter, who was managing editor for the last three years.
Jupiter, the Reporter's former operations manager George Fjeld, and three others made up a volunteer board of directors who ran the paper after previous owner, the Addison Independent, gifted the newspaper to an independent nonprofit in 2022 set up specifically to take over operations.
"George and I, we busted our butts to make this paper every week, but it got to be too much," Jupiter said.
The last month or so without the paper has been tough on the communities it served, he said.
“There’s not a place for people to find out what’s going on,” Jupiter said. "There’s no community calendar, and things like select board meetings and other town government issues are not being covered."
It’s a problem facing more and more communities in Vermont and nationally. According to a new report by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, almost 40% of local U.S. newspapers have vanished since 2005. More than 130 have closed in the last year alone, including the Eagle Times in Claremont, New Hampshire, which suspended operations in July.
“That is sort of horrifying to me, to think that people are going to be living in that information void,” Jupiter said. “It’s where rumors and misinformation start to take root.”
It's why he and Fjeld say they were thrilled to see such a big crowd turn out for a public meeting in September to discuss ways to save the paper.
“I think we expected like 20 people," Fjeld said, "and around 60 showed up. It was great.”
Pittsford resident Christopher Szczerba was among them. He's now part of a six-member working group that's trying to develop a volunteer-run online version of the Reporter.
"Thankfully, we don't have to reinvent the wheel, the bones of the paper are still there," said Szczerba, 34, who works in health care administration and said he has a strong interest in journalism.
The shuttered newspaper served a swath of communities in Rutland County; this effort to restore it is initially focused in Brandon and Pittsford.
Plans are still in the early stages, Szczerba said, but the group will meet this Saturday to discuss next steps.
“We know there was burnout with the paper’s previous board, and we want to make sure we’re honest with each other about what, as volunteers, we’re willing to do,” Szczerba said.
He said he can envision writing up stories himself on occasion but said it will be important to be transparent with readers about how stories are written and edited. Eventually, he said, they hope to be able to pay contributors.
If things go well, he said, volunteers may be able to begin publishing online in early 2026.
"We want to make sure that whatever we, and hopefully others in the community, contribute will be sustainable, truthful, honest and helpful,” Szczerba said.
