Burlington Free Press State House Reporter marks 25 years in the Biz

Burlington Free Press State House reporter Terri Hallenbeck posted this on Facebook today:

"Twenty-five years ago this week I started my newspaper career at the Norwich, N.Y., Evening Sun." Congratulations Ms. Hallenbeck for surviving and thriving in a challenging industry.

Knowing the fortunes of evening newspapers over the last quarter century, I googled the paper, mostly to see if it is still publishing. And yes, it is - five times a week, the "hometown paper of Chenango County." You can check it out at http://www.evesun.com/.

Naturally some current and former reporters made reference to their first jobs, including yours truly. I was a second-shift intern at the Free Press, sitting next to a grizzled police reporter who would (in frustration sometimes) bail the kid out of the messes he got himself into. His name was Mike Donoghue - wonder whatever happened to him?

Rob Roper's Common Sense Radio to fill True North time slot on WDEV

Rob Roper, editor of True North Reports and former host of True North Radio, will be back on WDEV in his 11 am time slot beginning Monday, Jan. 31.

In a report to readers in the Jan. 26 issue of True North Reports, Roper said the show, Common Sense Radio, will be sponsored by the Ethan Allen Institute. The Ethan Allen Institute is a conservative educational public affairs organization operated by John McClaughrey, former Caledonia County senator and aide to Pres. Ronald Reagan. Roper, of Stowe, is a former executive director of the Vermont Republican Party and Freedomworks.

In a response to an inquiry today, Roper said he and reporter Angela Chagnon will continue to issue True North Reports. "We will have our cake and eat it too," he said.

Thatcher Moats named to Vermont Press Bureau

vermontpressconnections has learned (see notice below) that Thatcher Moats, the City of Montpelier beat reporter for the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, has been hired to fill one of the two open slots at the Vermont Press Bureau, which covers state government for the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. 

Mr. Moats is the son of Pulitzer Prize winner and Rutland Herald editorial page editor David Moats, according to his 2008 wedding announcement in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/fashion/weddings/30duerr.html?_r=1

Press Bureau staff change

As many of you know, we've been looking for reporters for our Press Bureau, after naming Pete Hirschfeld the new chief in December.

We have hired Thatcher Moats, currently the Montpelier reporter for the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, to be a Vermont Press Bureau reporter. Thatcher has been with the Times Argus since the summer of 2008, when he replaced Pete as the cops and courts and general assignment reporter for the Times Argus. He moved to the Montpelier position last spring, replacing Sue Allen.

He will be moving into his new duties this coming week, while keeping an eye on Montpelier (the city government, not the state) until we can get him replaced. And, the third position will be filled soon...

-Rob Mitchell

Seven Days newspaper family hires three new employees

Thanks to JB McKinley, editor of the News & Citizen, for passing along this press release of three new hires in the Seven Days family of publications.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 21, 2011
Contact: Paula Routly
(802) 864-5684 or paula@sevendaysvt.com

Burlington-based Da Capo Publishing Announces Three New Hires
Seven Days brings on a graphic designer and a food writer; Kids VT gets an associate editor

Corin Hirsch, a graduate of the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism, has joined Seven Days’ editorial team as a food writer. Hirsch was most recently a food columnist at the Eagle Times in Claremont, N.H. While living there, she taught journalism at Lebanon College. New York native Hirsch also worked as a fact checker for The Nation magazine. She holds a master’s of fine arts degree, and spent several years working in art direction.

Brooke Bousquet, a Middletown Springs native, has joined the Seven Days production department as a graphic designer. Bousquet, a graduate of Castleton State College, was most recently a designer at the St. Albans Messenger. Bousquet also worked as a designer at the Valley Voice in Middlebury and The World in Barre.

Kate Laddison, a Georgia, Vt., native, has joined Kids VT as the associate editor. Laddison most recently managed a team of technical writers and regulatory specialists at a local medical software company, but she brings years of journalism experience to this position. Laddison left Vermont to attend Emerson College in Boston and returned to work as a reporter and editor for both the St. Albans Messenger and the County Courier in Enosburg Falls. She’s looking forward to returning to journalism. Laddison and her husband live in St. Albans with their 3-year-old son.

Seven Days is Vermont’s largest independent newsweekly and an award-winning source of news, opinion, art and music reviews, job listings, personals and classifieds. The paper is distributed free every Wednesday at more than 1000 locations in northern and central Vermont, and Plattsburgh, N.Y. Its website, sevendaysvt.com <http://sevendaysvt.com> , includes web-only content, such as weekly episodes of the popular video series, “Stuck in Vermont.”

Seven Days also publishes 7 Nights: The Seven Days Guide to Vermont Restaurants and Bars, What’s Good: The Off-Campus Burlington Guide, and three e-newsletters: “NOW: Notes on the Weekend,” “Bite Club” and “Daily 7." Seven Days hosts an annual Vermont Restaurant Week each spring, and helps organize the Vermont Tech Jam job fair and tech expo each fall. The company was founded in 1995 by Pamela Polston and Paula Routly. 

Kids VT publishes a free monthly magazine and an annual Resource Guide, both of which reach parents via newsstands, schools and doctors’ offices. It also hosts an annual Camp and School Fair each February. Da Capo Publishing, dba Seven Days, is updating the design with the February issue. It will carry new, local, kid-friendly content — including feature stories of interest to parents and caregivers. Find it online at kidsvt.com <http://kidsvt.com> .

Herald of Randolph asks: are anonymous comments on media websites OK?

The Herald of Randolph, the award-winning weekly newspaper for Orange County, devoted an editorial to a question being asked in many newsrooms in Vermont and across the country: should media websites allow anonymous reader comments?

Herald Editor/Publisher M. Dickey Drysdale reprinted an editorial from a Maine newspaper that is "food for thought" for editors of online news publications. The Maine paper recognizes the issue's pros and cons, then takes a strong "no" stance. To read the editorial, go to:

http://www.ourherald.com/news/2010-01-13/Columns/col02.html

As editor/publisher of the Colchester Chronicle, about 12 years ago I began allowing anonymous reader comments in print, with the published understanding that I could edit with broad discretion. Shortly afterward the Colchester Police detained and handcuffed the Town Manager, whom they suspected of swiping some soft drinks stacked in a hallway in the Town Office. They had probable cause: on the morning after the police had dusted the drinks with invisible, heat-reactive dust, the TM showed up for work with purple hands. I am not making this up. The ridiculous affair dubbed "Sodagate" was received with much ridicule and hilarity. Now that the Statute of Limitations on newspaper comment anonymity has expired, I can reveal to the world that the funniest comment came from a Fort Ethan Allen resident and radio personality better known these days as one of Colchester's representatives to the Vermont Legislature: Rep. James Condon.

I never let the anonymous comments get too uncivil. Perhaps for that reason, the anonymous comments column died a slow death. I doubt the same can be said for the "To Sign or Not to Sign" debate, as the popularity of online news increases.

Your thoughts are welcome in the "comments" section.

New face at WPTZ news desk: Emmy winner, world traveler, racehorse owner

You may have seen George Mallet as the new face on the WPTZ evening and late night news. vermontpressconnections asked the station for a bio, which we received and pass along to our readers:

George Mallet started his journalism career in print rather than on television.  His first job after graduating from The University of Delaware was as a news clerk with The Associated Press in New York City.  Although he has made his career on television since the early eighties, he continues to write pieces for such publications as The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Delaware Today Magazine.

George’s first on-air reporting job was for KUAM-TV in Agana Guam.  He didn’t stay in that U.S territory long and soon returned to the mainland where he began reporting for WITN in Washington, North Carolina.  After departing coastal Carolina, George spent ten years reporting for WTVD, the ABC-owned station in Raleigh-Durham.  From Raleigh, he moved to Fox Philadelphia where he reported and anchored for ten years.  Most recently, he has worked as an anchor and reporter for WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The winner of multiple Emmy and AP awards for spot news coverage, George has had the opportunity to cover major stories throughout his career.  While working for WTVD, he was sent to the Soviet Union to cover the Moscow Music Peace Festival featuring Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Ozzie Osbourne and a handful of heavy rock acts.  He also covered the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, the crash of TWA 800 and every hurricane to hit the fragile coast of North Carolina between 1987 and 1997.  During his time in Philadelphia, George was sent to Rome to cover the canonization of Saint Katherine Drexel and to Florida to cover the 1998 return of John Glenn to space.  Between 2004 and 2007, George chronicled an unparalleled streak of great Philadelphia racehorses participating in the Triple Crown races including Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Barbaro and Hard Spun.  Those assignments garnered George two Emmy nominations and sparked an obsession with horses that continues today.

When he isn’t working, George enjoys riding the young thoroughbred racehorse he rescued from the track.  That horse, Brahma Fear, is the grandson of the great Secretariat and finished in the money in 17 races on tracks from Philadelphia to Virginia.  An avid kayaker, George lives near Lake Champlain with his Norwegian Elk Hound, Charlie.

Vermont Press Bureau seeks two new reporters, including investigator

That unfamiliar face in the press corps at Gov. Peter Shumlin's Jan. 14 statehouse press conference is not exactly new to the newspaper business - and neither is his family. Rob Mitchell is an executive in the family business, the Rutland Herald/Times Argus newspaper group. He was covering for Vermont Press Bureau Chief and sole reporter Peter Hirschfeld, who was in Grafton on assignment. The Herald/TA is still trying to fill both posts created late last year by the resignations of two veteran reporters. Louis Porter and Dan Barlow joined the Vermont Conservation Law Foundation and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility respectively.

Mitchell, who oversees the VPB, said a hiring that was imminent last week fell through. For at least one position he wants a hard-nosed reporter with strong investigative skills.