Spaulding High, SMC "J" program grad is new editor at Milton Independent

vermontpressconnections asked Courtney Lamdin, the new editor at the Milton Independent, to describe the changes at Milton's longtime community newspaper. She is one of many graduates from media-related programs at schools like St. Michaels, Johnson State, and Lyndon State who are now working in the Vermont media. We received this notice from her today:

After working at The Milton Independent as the town’s only reporter for a little over a year, I was promoted to the post of editor after my editor, Lynn Delaney, retired after nearly 18 years at the paper. Lynn started the Independent with funding from Emerson Lynn, publisher and editor of the St. Albans Messenger, which is still the paper’s owner.

Although I’m still writing Milton news, my new position means I make editorial decisions about coverage and assign stories to our new reporter and page designer, Jackie Cain. She’ll mostly be covering the neighboring town of Georgia, where we just increased our circulation to every mailing address.

A little about my background: I grew up in Barre, graduating from Spaulding High School in 2005 as salutatorian of my class. I moved on to St. Michael’s College and graduated summa cum laude with top honors in my bachelor’s program, Journalism and Mass Communications. I was online and then executive editor of my college paper, The Defender. I also minored in gender studies and marketing.

As editor of The Independent, I don’t plan to make any drastic changes to our coverage. Lynn’s mantra was always, “We don’t have to get it first; we have to get it right.” That’s exactly what I want to stick to. Milton residents have appreciated our honest, reliable coverage of news that doesn’t get picked up by the bigger dailies. As a weekly, we have time to digest and analyze the news, and that’s something I’ll continue.

 One change that I mentioned earlier is our expansion into Georgia. Because I want to ensure that Georgia’s story is told, just like Milton’s is, I hope to add a Georgia section, complete with town and school directories, meeting schedules and other pertinent information. With Jackie now on board, I have the ability to assign her stories that I never had the time to cover on my own. I’ve already seen our crime and police coverage expand since she’s been at our paper.

I’m very happy to be at The Milton Independent and have found the community is welcoming to its local newspaper. Being editor of a publication was always my “dream job,” and I’m thankful that at 23 years old, I’ve been given the chance to attain that goal. I guess the only direction to go from here is forward.