Vermont Digger

About Vermont Digger

VTDigger is a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news organization providing investigative and public-service journalism across Vermont. Founded in September 2009 by journalist Anne Galloway after she was laid off from the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, it began as a one-woman newsroom and grew into the largest newsroom in Vermont, with around 30 employees and more than 550,000 monthly readers. A project of the Vermont Journalism Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, VTDigger covers state government, public policy, the environment, health care, education, and criminal justice. It is widely regarded as one of the most successful nonprofit local news organizations in the United States and as Vermont's newspaper of record.

Founding by Anne Galloway

VTDigger was founded in September 2009 by Anne Galloway, months after she was laid off from her job as Sunday editor of the Rutland Herald and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Galloway has said she did not know anything about nonprofits or websites when she was laid off, but the layoff upended her perspective: she investigated what it would take to start a news site and decided to do it full time. She was convinced the site should be a nonprofit from the start. "I didn't feel that we had a choice because I didn't see a future for commercial journalism," she later said. The site's name captured its mission: to dig into the gaps in Vermont news coverage left by shrinking newspapers.

The One-Woman Newsroom

For the first two years, Galloway worked 80- to 90-hour weeks and did not take a paycheck, burning through startup money as she learned the business of nonprofit journalism. She started with a budget of about $16,000 and no employees. The early lessons were hard-won: she could not afford to spend weeks on a single investigation if she wanted to grow an audience, so she committed to publishing daily — going into the Statehouse in Montpelier and covering the legislature, the state budget, and the governor's race. She combined an assortment of gifts and grants to keep the operation alive, aiming to build toward a sustainable budget. The daily publishing rhythm became a defining feature: part of the reason readers liked VTDigger, Galloway said, was that it was a daily, publishing eight to twelve stories a day on public policy and community issues.

The Vermont Journalism Trust

VTDigger is a project of the Vermont Journalism Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a board of volunteer members plus the CEO as an ex-officio member. The trust structure gives the newsroom institutional stability and a clear charitable mission, and it has allowed VTDigger to raise money from foundations, businesses, and individual donors. The nonprofit model — funded by member donations, business underwriting, and foundation grants — freed the organization from the printing and distribution costs that were crushing newspapers, and Galloway has argued that it works because it asks readers and businesses to buy into the idea of journalism as a public good. The trust now oversees the largest newsroom in the state.

Growth into Vermont's Largest Newsroom

VTDigger's growth has been extraordinary. From a one-woman operation in 2009, it had 13 full-time employees by 2015, a staff of 19 and a $1.5 million annual budget by 2017, and around 30 employees — about two dozen journalists plus operations, fundraising, and technology staff — in recent years, with plans and capacity continuing to expand. Its offices sit near the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier. The growth came as Vermont's legacy papers shrank under corporate ownership: the Burlington Free Press was cut severely under Gannett, and VTDigger, alongside the alt-weekly Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio, stepped into the gaps. Observers have called it the largest investigative reporting nonprofit in the country focused on local or state news, and the only online nonprofit news organization in the country to have effectively replaced daily print newspapers in its market.

Investigative Reporting

Investigations are VTDigger's signature. Galloway herself broke open a fraudulent scheme involving developers at Jay Peak, the Northeast Kingdom ski resort — reporting that exposed one of the largest EB-5 visa frauds in American history and became a national story. The newsroom has investigated fraud at Vermont ski areas, toxic waste problems, the state's troubled mental health and hospital systems, and the dairy crisis that has reshaped rural Vermont. Its reporting combines deep document work with accountability: naming names, following money, and staying with stories through official investigations and prosecutions. The Jay Peak investigation in particular demonstrated what a small nonprofit newsroom could accomplish against well-connected interests.

Statehouse and Policy Coverage

Day-to-day, VTDigger is a Statehouse newsroom. Its reporters cover the Vermont legislature, the governor, the state budget, health care reform, education funding, environmental regulation, and criminal justice — the unglamorous machinery of state government that determines how Vermonters live. The coverage is serious and policy-literate: Galloway's early decision to cover the state budget "in a very serious way" set the template. The site also sorts candidates' positions by topic during elections, produces video of debates, and structures citizen involvement in covering political issues. Its interactivity — comment sections, reader polls, and public engagement — reflects a belief that journalism should be a conversation with the community, not a lecture.

Podcasts and Audience Engagement

VTDigger has expanded beyond text into podcasts and newsletters, meeting readers where they are. A reader poll found that a quarter of VTDigger's readers got their news from podcasts, and the organization has partnered with groups such as Writers for Recovery on podcast projects. Its email newsletters deliver the day's essential Vermont news to inboxes across the state. The engagement strategy is deliberate: in a small state, the relationship between the newsroom and its readers is personal, and VTDigger has cultivated it through events — including a 10th anniversary celebration in 2019 — reader surveys, and transparent communication about its finances and mission.

Leadership Transition

In recent years, Anne Galloway stepped aside from her management position to concentrate on investigative reporting, becoming editor-at-large while new leadership took over day-to-day operations. In a letter to readers, she wrote that VTDigger had grown beyond her wildest dreams and had developed a sustainable funding model that was the envy of competitors in print and broadcast. The transition marked the maturation of the organization from a founder-driven startup into an institution built to outlast its founder — the central challenge for every successful nonprofit newsroom. Galloway continues to report, following the stories she spent her career building the newsroom to cover.

The early press took notice. Nieman Reports profiled the fledgling site in 2010, noting that Galloway had raised about $21,000 from gifts and grants and was aiming for $75,000 to $125,000 to keep going — modest sums that underscore how little it took to start. Commentators at the time marveled that VTDigger, online only since September 2009, was already mining the gaps in Vermont coverage: filling the void in the governor's race, going deep on the dairy crisis, and digging behind the headlines on stories like the State Hospital's canteen shutdown. What looked like a long shot in 2009 — a laid-off editor, a laptop, and a nonprofit filing — turned out to be the beginning of Vermont's newspaper of record.

Impact and National Significance

VTDigger's significance extends beyond Vermont. It is routinely cited as proof that the nonprofit model can sustain serious local journalism — that a newsroom can be built from nothing, without a printing press or a corporate parent, and grow into its state's paper of record. Journalism researchers and funders study it as a template: start with a committed founder, publish daily, diversify revenue across readers, businesses, and foundations, and invest relentlessly in accountability reporting. For Vermonters, its significance is simpler: in a state where legacy newspapers have withered, VTDigger is where you go to find out what your government is doing. That is the mission Galloway set in September 2009, and the newsroom she built still pursues it every day.